The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls
A Novel
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2.7 • 3 Ratings
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
"A joy to read." —New York Times Book Review
From beloved bestselling author Ursula Hegi, a new novel about three mothers, set on the shores of the Nordsee, perfect for fans of Water for Elephants and The Light Between Oceans.
In the summer of 1878, the Ludwig Zirkus arrives on Nordstrand in Germany, to the delight of the island’s people. But after the show, a Hundred-Year Wave roars from the Nordsee and claims three young children.
Three mothers are on the beach when it happens: Lotte, whose children are lost; Sabine, a Zirkus seamstress with her grown daughter; and Tilli, just a girl herself, who will give birth later that day at St. Margaret’s Home for Pregnant Girls. After the tragedy, Lotte’s husband escapes with the Zirkus, while she loses the will to care for their surviving son. Tilli steps in, bonding with him in a way she isn’t allowed to with her own baby, taken away at birth. Sabine, struggling to keep her childlike daughter safe in the world, forms a complicated friendship with Lotte. But the mothers' fragile trio is threatened when Lotte and her husband hatch a dangerous plan to reunite their family, and Tilli and Sabine must try to find a way to pull them back to reality.
As full of joy and beauty as it is of pain, and told with the luminous power that has made Ursula Hegi a beloved bestselling author for decades, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls is a shining testament to the ways in which women hold each other up in the most unexpected of circumstances.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In Hegi's mesmerizing tale (after Children and Fire) the loss of three children in a freak accident transforms their parents. In 1878, Lotte and Kalle Jansen are walking along the shore with their four small children in Nordstrand, Germany, when a hundred-year wave crashes on the beach, carrying away three of them. In Lotte's grief, she can't care for Wilhelm, her remaining child, who's still nursing. The nuns at the St. Margaret Home for Pregnant Girls intervene by allowing 11-year-old Tilli to serve as wet nurse. By breastfeeding Wilhelm, Tilli assuages her sorrow over the adoption of her own infant daughter. Lotte soon rallies, paying more attention to Wilhelm and assisting as a midwife at St. Margaret's. Kalle, a toy maker, believes his fantasy of traveling caused his children's deaths, so he leaves town with the circus, convinced that Lotte and Wilhelm are better off without him. He returns a few months later to find that in her mourning, Lotte and Tilli have made a bizarre plan for their family's future. Beautiful prose keeps the pages turning, and Hegi's command of the plot and ability to render poignant characters create a satisfyingly emotional story. Hegi's fans and devotees of literary fiction will treasure this.
