The Quintland Sisters
The Quintland Sisters

Author: Shelley Wood

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2019-03-05

Total Pages: 418

ISBN-13: 006283911X

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"A historical novel that will enthrall you... I was utterly captivated..." — Joanna Goodman, author of The Home for Unwanted Girls AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER For fans of Sold on a Monday or The Home for Unwanted Girls, Shelley Wood's novel tells the story of the Dionne Quintuplets, the world's first identical quintuplets to survive birth, told from the perspective of a midwife in training who helps bring them into the world. Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets: five tiny miracles born to French farmers in hardscrabble Northern Ontario in 1934. Emma cares for them through their perilous first days and when the government decides to remove the babies from their francophone parents, making them wards of the British king, Emma signs on as their nurse. Over 6,000 daily visitors come to ogle the identical “Quints” playing in their custom-built playground; at the height of the Great Depression, the tourism and advertising dollars pour in. While the rest of the world delights in their sameness, Emma sees each girl as unique: Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Marie, and Émilie. With her quirky eye for detail, Emma records every strange twist of events in her private journals. As the fight over custody and revenues turns increasingly explosive, Emma is torn between the fishbowl sanctuary of Quintland and the wider world, now teetering on the brink of war. Steeped in research, The Quintland Sisters is a novel of love, heartache, resilience, and enduring sisterhood—a fictional, coming-of-age story bound up in one of the strangest true tales of the past century.

Quint
Quint

Author: Dionne Irving

Publisher:

Published: 2021-07

Total Pages: 324

ISBN-13: 9781736176726

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Quint is a dazzling and inventive novel based on a true story of the Dionne quintuplets-the first quintuplets known to have survived their infancy. Born during the Great Depression, the quintuplets are taken from their homes and turned into a tourist attraction in Canada in the 1940s, leading to a lifelong struggle against the abuses of their profiteers. In the vein of Zadie Smith's NW and Valeria Luiselli's Lost Children Archives, Quint takes the reader on an unforgettable journey into a little-known part of North American history.

The Poppy Wife
The Poppy Wife

Author: Caroline Scott

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2019-11-05

Total Pages: 440

ISBN-13: 0062955314

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“A beautifully evocative reminder of what it means to come back from war and to face the age-old question of whether it is better to have survived or to have died. Highly recommended.”—Library Journal, starred review In the tradition of Jennifer Robson and Hazel Gaynor, this unforgettable debut novel is a sweeping tale of forbidden love, profound loss, and the startling truth of the broken families left behind in the wake of World War I. 1921. Survivors of the Great War are desperately trying to piece together the fragments of their broken lives. While many have been reunited with their loved ones, Edie’s husband Francis is still missing. Francis is presumed to have been killed in action, but Edie knows he is alive. Harry, Francis’s brother, was there the day Francis went missing in Ypres. And like Edie, he’s hopeful Francis is living somewhere in France, lost and confused. Hired by grieving families in need of closure, Harry returns to the Western Front to photograph soldiers’ graves. As he travels through France gathering news for British wives and mothers, he searches for evidence his own brother is still alive. When Edie receives a mysterious photograph that she believes was taken by Francis, she is more certain than ever he isn’t dead. Edie embarks on her own journey in the hope of finding some trace of her husband. Is he truly gone, or could he still be alive? And if he is, why hasn’t he come home? As Harry and Edie’s paths converge, they get closer to the truth about Francis and, as they do, are soon faced with the life-changing impact of the answers they discover. An incredibly moving account of an often-forgotten moment in history—those years after the war that were filled with the unknown—The Poppy Wife tells the story of the thousands of soldiers who were lost amid the chaos and ruins in battle-scarred France; and the even greater number of men and women hoping to find them again.

The Dionnes
The Dionnes

Author: Ellie Tesher

Publisher:

Published: 1999

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9780385258432

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The story of the quintuplets from Canada who were raised apart from their family and put on display for the public.

The Dionne Years
The Dionne Years

Author: Pierre Berton

Publisher: New York : Norton

Published: 1978

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13: 9780393075298

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Tells of a miracle of birth that turned into a soap opera and, later, a tragedy--the Dionne years, a time when five little girls became the victims of media exploitation

The Last Secret
The Last Secret

Author: Maia Caron

Publisher: Doubleday Canada

Published: 2024-09-24

Total Pages: 417

ISBN-13: 0385688822

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A sweeping, dazzling dual-timeline novel centering on two unforgettable women—and their inextricable link to each other decades apart. Ukraine, 1944 As the world around her is ripped apart by war and infiltrated by Nazi soldiers, Savka Ivanets works as a medic for the Ukrainian resistance, stitching wounds by day, stealing supplies by night, and dodging firefights between the SS and Soviet partisans. When her husband, Marko, a reluctant member of the Waffen-SS, forces her to deliver a coded message to an underground bunker, she’s terrified. But when her mission doesn’t go as planned, and her son, Taras, is kidnapped by the KGB, Savka fears she’ll never see him again. Salt Spring Island, 1972 For Jeanie Esterhazy, the world, with its whispers and curious eyes, is too much to bear. Ever since the horrific accident that left her badly scarred, Jeanie, unable to remember anything about that awful day, has pulled away from society, utterly isolated. Then a mysterious stranger appears at her house, and Jeanie suddenly begins having flashbacks about the night of her wedding—flashbacks that hold answers to the questions she’s had for years; flashbacks that make her realize the world around her is not as it seems. Weaving together Savka and Jeanie's stories with artful precision, The Last Secret is at once luminous and transporting, a brilliant and impossible-to-forget story of love, hope, and the breathtaking resilience of women.

The Leap Year Gene
The Leap Year Gene

Author: Shelley Wood

Publisher: HarperCollins

Published: 2024-08-06

Total Pages: 414

ISBN-13: 1443473170

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From the author of The Quintland Sisters, a sweeping, imaginative historical epic that follows the remarkable lives of the McKinleys, a family forever altered by daughter Kit’s secret. February 29, 1916. A baby girl is born—but as the months and years go by, Kit McKinley inexplicably ages just one year for every four. Her mother Lillian, a fledgling botanist, fears that Kit’s condition will catch the attention of Lillian’s fellow suffragettes, who have embraced the eugenics craze sweeping North America targeting unfit, unwed mothers and “defective” children. For decades, Kit and her family must keep on the move to conceal her secret and protect her from the unwanted attention of Nazi scientists, nosy doctors, Big Pharma and the insatiable news media that is always hunting for the next sensational story. When Kit finally reaches her teens and can pass for an adult, she must decide whether she wants to stay perpetually on the run or stay put and form lasting ties. The only problem is Will Katzen, whose life—first as a baby, then as a boy, and then as a man—keeps intersecting with hers, complicating every instinct she has to flee, or to love. Part medical mystery, part love story, The Leap Year Gene is an unforgettable tour de force that traces the past century’s burgeoning understanding of genetics, eugenics and what constitutes “normal” while exploring the tensions, losses, love and sense of duty that can bind families together or split them apart.

The Leap Year Gene of Kit McKinley
The Leap Year Gene of Kit McKinley

Author: Shelley Wood

Publisher: Union Square & Co.

Published: 2024-08-06

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1454956305

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An inspired, sweeping, historical epic tracing the remarkable life story of a baby girl born on leap year day who grows one year older every four years. The Leap Year Gene imagines the fascinating life of Kit McKinley from WWI up to the present day, told through the voices of Kit and her family members, whose lives are forever altered by her secret. February 29, 1916: After an unusually long pregnancy, Lillian McKinley, whose husband has been killed in the war, gives birth to a baby girl on Leap Year Day. Kit proves to be a happy and intelligent child, but unnaturally slow to age. For decades, she and her family must keep on the move to protect her secret—from insatiable newshounds, Nazi scientists, doctors, and pharmaceutical companies. When Kit at last can pass for an adult, she must decide whether she wants to stay perpetually on the run or form lasting ties. Ultimately, once the human genome is mapped and research on altering it begins, she’ll need to make some difficult choices about the strange quirk in her DNA that has made her who she is. Perfect for fans of Kate Atkinson's Life After Life and Audrey Niffenegger's The Time Traveler's Wife, The Leap Year Gene is a race through the past century’s burgeoning understanding of genetics, eugenics, and what constitutes “normal,” while exploring the tensions, love, and sense of duty that can bind families together or split them apart.

Sister Sets
Sister Sets

Author: Emily Margolin Gwathmey

Publisher: William Morrow

Published: 1997

Total Pages: 116

ISBN-13: 9780688153311

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Weaving a dazzling tapestry of photographs, paintings, movie stills, posters, ads, and other ephemera, Sister Sets is rich with sibling rivalry and anecdotal allure about sisters--famous, infamous and otherwise. Illustrations, many in full-color.