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Praise for The Birth House:
"The
moon over Nova Scotia must have extra magic in it to have fostered a writer of
Ami McKay's lyrical sway and grace. She retrieves our social history and lays
it out before us in a collage of vivid, compelling detail. In McKay's depiction
of Dora Rare, an early twentieth century midwife, attention is paid to the day-to-day
moments of love and tending that enable humans to endure. And we the readers get
to witness the emergence of a powerful new voice in Canadian writing."
-
Marjorie Anderson, co-editor of Dropped Threads I and II.
"Fresh
as a loaf of homemade bread just out of the oven, The Birth House, a tale of sex,
birth, love and pain will more than satisfy the hungry reader."
-
Joan Clark, author of An Audience of Chairs
"Ami
McKay is a marvellous storyteller who writes with a haunting and evocative voice.
The novel offers a world of mystery and wisdom, a world where tradition collides
with science, where life and death meet under the moon. With a startling sense
of time and place, The Birth House travels through a landscape that is at once
deeply tender and exquisitely harsh. McKay is possessed with a brilliant narrative
gift."
- Christy Ann Conlin, author of Heave
"Reading
Ami McKay's first novel is like rummaging through a sea chest found in a Nova
Scotian attic. Steeped in lore and landscape, peppered with journal entries, newspaper
clippings and advertisements, this marvellous 'literary scrapbook' captures the
harsh realities of the seacoast community of Scots Bay, Nova Scotia during WW
I. With meticulous detail and visceral description, McKay weaves a compelling
story of a woman who fights to preserve the art of midwifery, reminding us of
the need, in changing times, for acts of bravery, kindness, and clear-sightedness."
-
Beth Powning, author of The Hatbox Letters and Edge Seasons
