This is the fourth novel I have read of Chris Bohjalian. I think I could say he is one of my favorite contemporary authors.

“Midwives” is a story of a midwife and her family, in 1981, who go through some tragic times because of a birth gone wrong on a cold and icy Vermont night.

Connie Danforth, now in her 30s and an OBGYN doctor, tells the story from her viewpoint, the year she turned 14. Her mother Sybil, a midwife, was put on trial for the death of Charlotte Bedford while she was performing a C-Section in an attempt to save the baby. The baby is rescued and lives.

The book covers all of the events leading up to the trial and the trial itself. As the author moves forward and backward in time, the novel becomes a real page turner. The foreshadowing in the first chapter of the climax of the book is very clever. It doesn’t give away the ending, but it certainly titillates the reader.

I am amazed that Chris Bohjalian writes so well from a woman’s point of view. the descriptive detail of the home birthing process was remarkable. Had I not known he was a male, I would have surmised the author was a woman. Sybil is a strong character and the fact that she is so passionate about delivering babies puts the birthing experience on a spiritual level. The controversy surrounding the birth of babies in a hospital or at home is clearly researched and explained. I don’t think the author was trying to persuade the reader, but rather explain it from both sides.