The German Midwife

The German Midwife  by Mandy Robotham    352 pages

Fans of  “The Alice Network” and “The Tattooist of Auschwitz” are gonna love this debut novel by Mandy Robotham.

 

Anke Hoff is a trained midwife…and a Jew. She is a trained and talented midwife who feels it is her duty to help the pregnant women who arrive in the concentration camp. She has learned not to be hopeful but to be ambivalent to women who ask about their babies’ chances. Chapter One takes place in 1944 in the notorious camp of Ravensburk. It’s heartbreaking to read the pain and suffering these women experienced during labor and what most often happened to their babies. The scenes are rather gruesome, yet realistic/

 

The camp’s guards and administrators know of Anke’s talents.  She is chosen to be the midwife to Eva Braun, who is carrying the heir to the Third Reich.  When she arrives at the Hitler’s mountain retreat, she is given lots of freedoms, but she knows that she if still a prisoner of war. The guards and the servants watch her every move. The only time she feels any real freedom is when she is with Eva.

 

Readers get to experience Eva’s pregnancy, and it begs the question of “What if?’ What if Eva and Adolph Hitler had had a child? And given their end, what would have happened to it?

 

As Eva’s pregnancy slowly and uneventfully progresses, Anke finds herself making friends with her captors and the house servants. She has small, but significant relationships with several of the secondary characters, which adds a second layer to this wonderfully written tale. When Eva does go into labor, there are unexpected complications.

 

Anke is used to making life and death decisions, especially since Hitler’s rise, but her attachment to Eva and others makes for intersting reading.

 

I was surprised by the graphic nature of some of the scenes involving pregnancy, labor and birth. But they are tasteful and appropriate given the nature of this story.

 “The German Midwife”  receives 5 out of 5 stars in Julie’s world.

Alchemy's Daughter

 

Alchemy’s Daughter by Mary A. Osborne    268 pages

Santina Pietra is a seventeen-year-old living in 14^th-Century Italy; San Gimignano to be exact. There aren’t many alternatives for young adult women at this time. The two best options are marriage or the convent. She can stay at home as a spinster and take care of her father; her mother having died many years ago.

Santina’s father has his eye set on a much older man for her husband. But she doesn’t even like him, much less love him. She loves Calandrino, a scholar and friend of her father’s.

Santina is no ordinary woman. She wants to follow her love of knowledge and be something more than a brood mare. She spends her day studying, looking forward to her weekly lesson with Calandrino. However, when he seemingly abandons her for studies at a far-away university, she is devastated.

Instead of capitulating to her father’s wishes that she marry like her sisters, Santina leaves home to study with the local midwife Trotula. In the small cabin, she learns how to fend for herself, how to help deliver the villages babies, and cure the population’s sicknesses. Santina thrives in this role, no matter that both she and Tortula are considered witches.

This story may be set in the 1340s, but Santina resembles a 21^st –Century woman. She is fearless, modern, intelligent, and strong. I feel that the young adult women who read this will find not only inspiration, but role models in both women.

The story was rather slow in the beginning, but quickly moved into a can’t-put-it-down tale of strong women. That’s why I gave Alchemy’s Daughter four out of 5 stars.