#BlogTour ‘Waiting For The Miracle’ by Anna McPartlin

About the book…

Caroline has hit rock bottom. After years of trying, it’s clear she can’t have children, and the pain has driven her and her husband apart. She isn’t pregnant, her husband is gone and her beloved dog is dead.

The other women at her infertility support group have their own problems, too. Natalie’s girlfriend is much less excited about having children than her. Janet’s husband might be having an affair. And then there’s Ronnie, intriguing, mysterious Ronnie, who won’t tell anyone her story.

1976

Catherine is sixteen and pregnant. Her boyfriend wants nothing to do with her, and her parents are ashamed. When she’s sent away to a convent for pregnant girls, she is desperate not to be separated from her child. But she knows she might risk losing the baby forever.

Question-why is it only now that I am hearing about this quite incredible author?

I feel I should hand in my library cards, sack myself as a self confessed reader and go back to school, this amazing book will change lives, leave you feeling bereft , stunned and fully intending to plunder her back catalogue.

Honestly not even sure where to begin with how to describe the pure joy and release that reading ‘Waiting For The Miracle’ brings?

Maybe here-

”Who the fuck leaves their wife on a Tuesday?”

Weaving two seamless narratives, from the not so distant past and the present, in 2010, this is a deeply moving and well constructed meditation on the internal, and external, expectations of motherhood.

Taking Ireland as the back drop, in itself a character in the novel, the story explores the way in which farm girl Catherine, is used and discarded and ultimately abandoned in the ‘care’ of a local institution for girls who find themselves in the family way.

In 2010, the women who meet at a group for those undergoing IVF, and other ways of making their dreams of having a family come true, find themselves connecting in an all together unexpected way.

Catherine’s narrative is absolutely devastating-her family, her town, the boy who got her pregnant, all leave her frightened and alone. Her strength to keep going in the face of unimaginable terror just alternately enrages and suffocates you, you feel her terror so keenly and relate the suffering to the horrendous, and still emerging, scandals of the Irish Catholic church selling babies. Families paid for them to take their errant family members, paid to have them back when they had been ‘cured of their wilfulness’ and the nuns pocketed the money they received in the sales of children to ‘real mothers’, often overseas.

The late 70’s is not ancient history, there was the availability of contraception and access to abortions in mainland England, however, the alternatives for young girls who ‘found themselves with child’ (it was never the fault of the male, of course) were unthinkable, heart-breaking and often fatal.

That Catherine not only stands up for herself and demands to keep her baby is an astonishing feat of will power, she is adamant that her child will not be sold or given away. Her prayers to the saint of lost souls, St Jude, are for such a small miracle, to be allowed to keep her child. But the harsh reality of being a single parent in late 70’s/early 80’s Ireland are far from an attainable.

In 2010, Caroline, Nancy, Janet and Ronnie, things are very different. Caroline and husband Dave have agreed the toll of IVF is too much and the last attempt was the very last one. Except Caroline is still holding out for the tiniest miracle that Dave will change his mind…

Natalie and her partner, Linda, are hoping to use her twin Paul’s sperm so that their IVF baby will have both their DNA. Is this just a little too close for comfort in the familial relations stakes?

Janet and her husband Jim have had multiple miscarriages followed by a Molar Pregnancy which has devastated them both. Do they have anything left to try again?

And then there is newcomer Ronnie, an American who breezes in and has a Marmite effect on the friends. But is there more to her than meets the eye?

As the dual time lines come together, you find yourself completely immersed in the voices of the women-their fight and conflict to have a child is detailed so thoroughly and realistically, and yet , there is such a sense of humour that I think comes out in the darkest of situations. For example, I got the biggest belly laugh at Janet and Jim calling their molar pregnancy ‘Derek’, after his father,because he is a major pain in the arse. As the women rationalise, their chances of having a baby are 1:3, 1 of them could be lucky. But which one?

The way that Anna writes is so brilliantly simple and clever, she captures not only the dialogue between several different types of couples but that of a group of women so succinctly that you can see all the characters vividly. And whilst Catherine’s story is a lynchpin of the story of how it can be to have a baby when you step outside the rigid rules of a patriarchal society leaving the woman tarnished, and the man spotlessly clean, the process of patriarchal bargaining takes place with the nuns and the girls’ mothers as much as it does in the way that the men uphold their virtue.

The expectations on women to choose between career and children, the notion of having it all and being able to pick and choose when to have a child is so fraught with so very many potholes that sometimes I am genuinely amazed we ever even had any. The odds of you being you are so astronomical that to choose to push down and denigrate a non traditional family, an alternative family unit, or not help those in need of support is sincerely baffling. The tears will flow long and hard reading about the abuses done in the name of religion, which stills affects so many thousands of displaced women and childless mothers to this very day. And maybe, the miracle that each of these women were waiting for, already existed within themselves as they fought to be the best version of themselves that they could be, whether they were parents or not. The fact that Catherine’s child did not leave the Institution with her does not negate her love or her mission to let her child know she was loved.

This is a truly spectacular novel on so many fronts, I urge you to read it!

About the author…

Anna McPartlin is an international best selling author, currently published in 15 languages across 18 countries. ‘Pack Up The Moon’ and ‘The Last Days Of Rabbit Hayes’ were nominated for Irish book awards. Rabbit Hayes also won a silver readers book award in Germany. In the UK it was a Simon Mayo and Richard and Judy book club pick and in the USA it was a Barnes & Nobel Book of the Month.

In the last few years Anna has been honing her TV scriptwriting skills working on medical drama ‘Holby City’ for the BBC (UK), legal drama ‘Striking Out,’ for RTE (IRE) and historical adaptation Jesus His Life for History Channel (USA).

Anna was nominated for an Irish Film & Television Academy award for her one off bi-lingual drama ‘School Run,’ and is currently in development with Hot Drop Films / Treasure Entertainment and funded by Screen Ireland for the film adaptation of ‘Rabbit Hayes.’ She is also in development for a crime series ‘Serious Crimes,’ with Blinder Productions (Virgin Media) in IRE. A historical crime drama with Noho Film & TV (UK) and ‘Richter,’ an RTE/NZ TV co-production crime drama with Blinder Productions.

Anna’s first children’s book the ‘The Fearless Five’ came out May 2019. Her next fiction novel ‘‘Below The Big Blue Sky’’ was published in April 2020.

Anna started out briefly as an actress and stand-up comedian but although her heart wasn’t in performance, she revels in storytelling and shining a light in dark places. Anna’s USP is in tackling difficult subjects with understanding, empathy and humour that spills onto every page.

Links-http://annamcpartlin.com/

Twitter @annamcpartlin @Tr4cyF3nt0n @ZaffreBooks