The Second Saturday Book Club for adults will focus on different genres throughout the year and meets the second Saturday morning each month at the Goshen Library. January's genre will be Historical Fiction and our selection is The Surgeon's Daughter by Audrey Black. You can pick up a copy of the book at your preferred branch. Please add a note to your registration if you don't need a copy of the book. If you have any questions please email Brian at brianw@oldhampl.org. Coffee and snacks provided.
Women's work is a matter of life and death.
Nora Beady, the only female student at a prestigious medical school in Bologna, is a rarity. In the 19th century women are expected to remain at home and raise children, so her unconventional, indelicate ambitions to become a licensed surgeon offend the men around her.
Everything changes when she allies herself with Magdalena Morenco, the sole female doctor on-staff. Together the two women develop new techniques to improve a groundbreaking surgery: the Cesarean section. It's a highly dangerous procedure and the research is grueling, but even worse is the vitriolic response from men. Most don't trust the findings of women, and many can choose to deny their wives medical care.
Already facing resistance on all sides, Nora is shaken when she meets a patient who will die without the surgery. If the procedure is successful, her work could change the world. But a failure could cost everything: precious lives, Nora's career, and the role women will be allowed to play in medicine.
