In a time of polarizing discourse on reproductive choice, Looking for Jane--Canadian author Heather Marshall's debut historical novel--is eerily current. Marshall notes: "I could not have predicted it would be this horrifyingly relevant in 2023."
The titular "Jane" was the code word for an underground network of women who arranged and performed abortions, beginning in the 1970s. The novel begins in 2017, long after Canada's 1988 legalization of abortion, when a misdelivered letter opens a story linking three women, all with long-kept secrets and all impacted by the complexities of reproductive choice. In a nonlinear narrative, the perspectives of women who desperately want a baby underscores that abortion isn't the sole women's health issue. Unknowingly linking the three is Evelyn, who as a young woman in a "fix" in 1960 was sent to the draconian St. Agnes's Home for Unwed Mothers and forced to relinquish her baby. Later, as a doctor and a "Jane," she meets Nancy and Angela, and the revelation of the dramatic coincidences in their shared histories provides peace and redemption. "Every child a wanted child, every mother a willing mother," Evelyn implores. Looking for Jane is unsparing in its details of physical, legal and emotional suffering, but the more memorable theme is the often risky solidarity of women helping women. The 1988 Canadian ruling legalizing abortion, Evelyn notes, was a victory for activists--and "for their daughters, and their daughters' daughters." --Cheryl McKeon, Book House of Stuyvesant Plaza, Albany N.Y.