Monday, July 26, 2010

The Wet Nurse's Tale

My husband actually found this book for me at the library as he knows of my obsession with absorbing any and all breastfeeding-related information.  It was a wonderful story.

It's set in the Victorian era, and it's about a poor maid named Susan Rose who finds herself pregnant from the son of the family she serves.   She continues working as a maid and since she's a "big girl" tells no one of her pregnancy,  including her family, and then abruptly leaves while in labor.  

The story goes back and forth from present day to when she was a child, so you learn her mother was a wet nurse and would take babies into their home when Susan was a child.  After having her baby, Susan decides to become a wet nurse, since nowadays they live in with a family, so she can get far away from her drunken father.

Through the families she serves as a wet nurse, Susan gives you a fly-on-the-wall view of being around the upperclass of Victorian society.  Things take a turn when she discovers her father sells her baby.  She sets out on a mission to find her son, and she works her way into being hired as a wet nurse for her own son.  It's a whirlwind story where you can't stop reading.  The new adoptive mother of her baby is nuts and things happen that are frightening and dangerous for her child.  She realizes she must concoct a plan to take herself and her baby away and start a new life. 

If you love historical type fiction, this is definitely one not to be missed.

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