Title: The Quintland Sisters
Author: Shelley Wood
Published: 2019
Call #: Fic/Wood
In this debut novel by Shelly Wood, readers are brought into the world of the Dionne Quintuplets. The Quintuplets story is told through the eyes of one woman, Emma Trimpany,who present as a midwife-in-training when the babies are born in 1934. The infants are born to poor French farmers in Northern Ontario and are the first known "Quints" to survive their infancy. First as a nurse's assistant and then full-time nurse, Emma cares for them, from their earliest days, through to when the Canadian government removes the children from their parents, making them wards of the British King. A hospital/home is built by the government across the street from the Dionne family home in order to better care for the girls through their infancy and beyond.
The story quickly turns darker as it becomes clear to Emma that the girls are an experiment of sorts--doctors come and go with different ideas about the "correct" way to raise a child. Their parents, who are rarely in contact with the children, have their own agenda about how to raise their children. At the same time, the identical babies become a worldwide sensation with each passing day. At the height of their popularity, over 6,000 visitors came to see the children playing in their custom-built playground; turning the Dionne family home and the surrounding community into a money-making enterprise known as "Quintland" at the height of the Great Depression. The world is fascinated by the girls' sameness, but Emma records Yvonne, Annette, Cecile, Marie and Emilie as unique individuals through her paintings and private journal entries. It is through these entries that the tragic story of the Dionne Quintuplets is fully realized. Emma records the constant fights over custody, education, religion and most importantly, money, in her journals.
The story is that of love, heartache, sisterhood and the resilience of the human spirit entwined with the strange and ultimately heartbreaking true story of the Dionne Quintuplets. Highly recommended.
Jill B.
Popular Materials Manager