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The Birth of Love
In Vienna in 1865, Dr Ignaz Semmelweis has been hounded into an asylum by his medical peers, ridiculed for his claim that doctors’ unwashed hands are the root cause of childbed fever. In present-day London, Bridget Hayes juggles the needs of her young son, husband, and mother as she plans her home birth, unprepared for the trial she is about to endure. Somewhere in 2153, in a world where humans are birthed and raised in breeding farms, Prisoner 730004 is on trial for concealing a pregnancy.
From three perspectives spanning centuries, this novel explores childbirth, the most basic experience of women and men, from the slaughterhouse of primitive medicine to a futuristic vision of technological oppression. The Birth of Love is a powerful novel of science and faith, madness and compromise, and the epic journey of motherhood.
Extract
Read an extract from the The Birth of Love.
Reviews
Read review extracts of the book.
Interviews
- Joanna Kavenna: 'When I got pregnant I wanted to write something about the very bizarre process'
Guardian, 15 June 2010 - Joanna Kavenna on 'The Birth of Love'
The Thought Fox, 4th May 2010 - Joanna Kavenna on the labor of ‘Birth’
PBS, 15 June 2010 - Mystery of childbirth
Oxford Times, 3 June 2010
Publisher
- The Birth of Love is published in the UK by Faber.
- It is published by Henry Holt in the USA.
Buy
- Buy The Birth of Love from Amazon.co.uk.
- Buy The Birth of Love from Amazon.com.