Suite Francaise

Suite Francaise by Irene Nemirovsky is the book under discussion on the evening of March 12. This s an extraordinary novel of life under Nazi occupation - recently discovered and published 64 years after the author's death in Auschwitz. In the early 1940s, Irène Némirovsky was a successful writer living in Paris. But she was also Jewish, and in 1942 she was arrested and deported to Auschwitz. Her two small daughters, aged 5 and 13, escaped, carrying with them, in a small suitcase, the manuscript - one of the great first-hand novelistic accounts of a way of life unravelling.

For more see BookClubs.ca

The Birth House

The SAPL Seniors Book Group will be discussing The Birth House by Canadian author Ami McKay on March 14. The book is about Dora Rare, a midwife's apprentice. Working closely under the tutelage of the Cajun-born Marie Babineau, Dora learns both how to deliver babies and how to concoct the herbal remedies for various womanly afflictions. Miss Babineau's expertise is unquestioned, and her place in the community seems assured. But when a medical doctor arrives from a nearby town, decrying midwifery and urging women to give birth in his newly constructed maternity ward -- complete with chloroform and sterilized forceps -- Miss Babineau's future and reputation are challenged. And when Dora is forced to flee to Boston, she's exposed to a whole new range of choices for women, but must count on the loyalty of her friends back home to pave the way for her return.

See also The Birth House website.