The Quintland Sisters

January 1, 2019
Summoned in May 1934, to help the local midwife deliver a child two months premature, Emma Trimpany, just 17 years old herself, witnesses the remarkable births of five tiny babes: the Dionne Quintuplets.Wood's debut novel tells the story of the first recorded successful delivery of quintuplets, to Elzire and Oliva Dionne in rural Canada. Through journal entries, Emma chronicles the girls' lives from the frightening first days, when the tiny, fragile babies struggled to survive every hour, through their childhoods as well as Emma's own blossoming into a nurse and young woman. Already raising five children, the Dionnes live on a farm that Dr. Allan Dafoe pronounces unfit for the quints. Initially, Dafoe transforms the Dionne's kitchen into a sterile space with incubators shipped in from Chicago; eventually, a brand-new hospital is built, devoted exclusively to the quints and their medical team, across the street from the farmhouse. In addition to recording the girls' developmental progress, Emma traces the comings and goings of various nurses, some of whom leave under shadowy circumstances. Telling the tale through Emma's perspective enables Wood to capture not only the fiery conflict between the provincial, French-speaking Dionnes and the medical team (with its well-meaning but arrogant emphasis on cleanliness and what's best technically for the children), but also Emma's uncomfortable sympathies. The conflict escalates as Oliva Dionne and Dr. Dafoe lock horns in a series of lawsuits, with Dionne trying to assert parental rights and both sides (plus the Canadian government) trying to capitalize upon the quints' popularity through advertising and movie contracts. Meanwhile, as Emma herself must decide whether mothering the quints is worth giving up her dreams of art school, she is headed for a cataclysmic change of her own.A charming and well-researched, if long-winded, tale of love and survival.

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March 1, 2019

DEBUT This first novel takes on the real-life story of the Dionne Quintuplets, born in Northern Ontario in 1934. Fictional nurse Emma Trimpany follows the journey of these five girls who were taken from their French Canadian family and raised "scientifically" by the Ontario government until age nine. The Dionne Quints were a huge tourist attraction and in later life sued the government for a share of the millions made off their childhoods. This novel is told in letters and journal entries by Emma, interspersed with newspaper clippings (some real, some invented). The majority of the characters are real, and Emma's role is one of observer; when the Dionne experiment ends, the author seems a little uncertain where to take her fictional characters, and so the denouement is a series of disasters visited upon the unlucky Emma. VERDICT While the Dionne story is fascinating, the fictional elements are underdeveloped, with historical reportage taking the lead. For a deeper understanding of the true story, readers would be better off with one of the classic biographies or one of the Dionne sisters' memoirs. [See Prepub Alert, 10/1/18.]--Melanie Kindrachuk, Stratford P.L., Ont.

Copyright 2019 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Tavia Gilbert tells Emma's story, reading from the journal of this fictional character and giving her a believable voice with a wide range of emotions. Shelly Wood places 17-year-old Emma, a midwife-in-training, at the northern Ontario farm of the Dionne family when the world was captivated by the birth of five identical baby girls. Emma has a young, eager voice full of excitement and pride in her role of caring for the girls. A tone of superiority and judgment infuses her voice as she observes the parents trying to regain a role in the girls' lives. The girls have childlike voices, and the other characters also sound realistic. Excerpts from archival news stories that give historical context are read in an authoritative voice. N.E.M. � AudioFile 2019, Portland, Maine