City of Belmont - Ruth Faulkner Public Library

The surgeon's daughter, Audrey Blake

eng

no index present

fiction

The surgeon's daughter

Audrey Blake

Women's work is a matter of life and death. Nora Beady, the only female student at a prestigious medical school in Bologna, is a rarity. In the 19th century women are expected to remain at home and raise children, so her unconventional, indelicate ambitions to become a licensed surgeon offend the men around her. Everything changes when she allies herself with Magdalena Morenco, the sole female doctor on-staff. Together the two women develop new techniques to improve a ground-breaking surgery - the Caesarean section. It's a highly dangerous procedure and the research is gruelling, but even worse is the vitriolic response from men. Most don't trust the findings of women, and many can choose to deny their wives medical care. Already facing resistance on all sides, Nora is shaken when she meets a patient who will die without the surgery. If the procedure is successful, her work could change the world. But a failure could cost everything - precious lives, Nora's career and the role women will be allowed to play in medicine

adult