“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 … 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.
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The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls by Ursula Hegi is a historical fiction piece that has many elements added: folklore, fantasy, history.
The elements fuse into a novel that is rich in imagery, emotion, and invokes a response from deep within.
I enjoyed this book immensely as it was slightly out of my normal genre, however it was totally worth the experience. I was not sure where this book would initially take me, but as it progressed, the plot quickened and I quickly became immersed. The ending was quite satisfying and impressive.
Definitely a great read.
5/5 stars
[Hegi is] a writer at the height of her powers. I can’t think of a better way to ‘endorse’ a novel than to say I will be gifting it to my book-loving friends and family ― a gift, mind you, not a loan, as I want this title in my keeper bookshelf. As in a circus after a particularly riveting performance, The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls deserves a thunderous round of applause.
The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls is a novel full of marvels ― children with missing fathers, girls too young to be mothers, nuns who cherish their charges, circus acrobats, the beautiful northern light ― but the greatest marvel is Ursula Hegi’s shimmering, radiant, vivid prose. Her characters, and their lives full of love and longing, leap off the page and into the reader’s heart.
In 1878 the remote German village of Nordstrand lies amid a thick yellow growth of rapeseed and the Nordsee with its grays and blues.
This story is about people who love and whose lives are laced together, who respect, no, venerate their elders. ‘The old people’ are revered for their knowledge and experience . An annual festival festival is held honoring the eldest person in the village — — a coveted honor. It is acknowledged however that many of their stories may have been picked up through gossip. The men fish, the women tend their houses, cook, clean and care for their children. They attend mass at the stately St. Margaret’s church where the nuns care for pregnant Girls, birth their babies, and find homes for them. The nuns provide a broad education for the Girls… physics, geography, theater, dancing, art. A circus comes to town once a year, thrilling everyone. Life in this tranquil village is anything but idyllic or simple. Unbelievably, a tragedy occurs in the wake of a tremendous wave, a surge that only occurs every 100 years. Three children are lost to the wave. The entire village is devastated. The story of how they were affected, both immediately and for the rest of their lives is exquisitely told by the writer. Lives become intertwined throughout the devastation and sorrow. It is a story of women, mothers, wives, girls, nuns…young and old. I loved this book, the characters and the realism. I had a problem, however with so many Germanic words and phrases which interfered with my thought process like hitting a bump in the road while enjoying a beautiful bucolic country ride.
I love Ursula Hegi’s writing, and when I saw in NetGalley’s offerings that she has written a new book I was positively elated and jumped at the chance to review it!!
The Patron Saint of Pregnant Girls tells of life in small-town Nordstrand by the Noorsee. The story begins on a beautiful day when Lotte Jansen is returning home with her four children following a trip to the Zirkus which comes each summer. A hundred-year-wave crashes over them, ripping three of the children from her grasp. Though the townspeople, zircus people, fishermen and others search and search after the wave recedes, the children are never found. Lotte and her husband Kalle, a toymaker, are left with only Wilhelm, their infant son.
Sabine, a seamstress for the Zirkus, and her daughter Heike, a young woman with the mind of a child, are among those who help search, and whose stories we will come to know well. Sabine has known Lotte since Lotte was five and holds much affection for her. We will also come to know Tilli, eleven, pregnant with her twin brother’s child, thrown away by her parents and sent to give birth in St. Margaret’s Home for Girls run by Catholic nuns; the Sisters at the home, a diverse group of characters themselves; the Old Women, gossipers of the town; and several members of the Zirkus.
Hegi spins her characters and stories with a deft hand. The characters are rich and complex, the stories complex as well. Love and loss, strength and weakness, hope unfailing and unfulfilled, courage and cowardice, grief and joyfulness, all parts of the human experience are brought to light in wonderfully engaging and compelling ways. Come stay for awhile in Norstrand and see for yourself. Reading this book is a wonderful expexience!
My thanks to NetGalley, Ursal Hegi, and Flatiron Books for allowing me to read a copy of this book in exchange for an unbiased review. All opinions expressed here are my own.