Ask a Bookseller: ‘The Sweet Blue Distance’ and ‘The Frozen River’

Call the midwife: Jolie Hughes of Morgan Hill Bookstore in New London, N.H., recommends two recent historical fiction books that both feature midwives — one real, one fictional — set at different points within American history.“The Sweet Blue Distance” by Sara Donati follows a descendent of her bestselling Wilderness series.Young midwife Carrie Ballentyne travels from her home in New York to work in Sante Fe. It’s set in 1857, at an interesting moment in U.S. history: seven years after the U.S. claimed the territory from Mexico and four years before the start of the Civil War.Carrie finds herself in a complicated, multicultural community, highly segregated among Spanish, Indigenous and white inhabitants. She’s comfortable in all these communities, Jolie says, but not everyone is comfortable with her being there. Of course, as a nurse midwife, she sees the most intimate parts of people’s lives, including secrets her employer and his wife are keeping from her.Jolie says she enjoyed the history, politics and romance of this epic novel, adding, “I read it all the way through to get to the end, and then I read it again because I wanted to get all the details.”Jolie also recommends “Frozen River” by Ariel Lawhon. Set in 1789 Maine, in pre-Bill of Rights America, the novel features midwife Martha Ballard, a real-life figure who delivered over 1,000 babies and never lost a mother. “Frozen River” is also a murder mystery, with the frozen river being where a body is discovered. Called to the scene, Martha declares the death a murder, much to the consternation of those who'd rather the death be hushed up as an accident.“It’s about women’s voices and women’s truth being closed down because it makes men uncomfortable.”In a December 2023 interview with NPR host Scott Simon, Ariel Lawhon spoke about the importance, to her, of featuring a mature woman as a heroine. At age 54, Martha has a supportive husband of 35 years and several adult children as well as an important career within her community.Ask a Bookseller podcast

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