I love historical fiction and especially those books that are set around events that I'm not yet familiar with. Perkins-Valdez's novel is set in the south in 1972 where Civil is a nurse at a clinic providing medical care to the community. When Civil visits Erica and India she is tasked with giving them a Depo Provera birth control shot. Later she learns that the shots may cause cancer and she starts researching this on her own.
Although this is disturbing to her, Civil is devastated when she learns that the clinic director visited Eric and India at their home, obtained a signature from their grandmother and father (both illiterate) giving permission for Erica and India to receive tubal ligations. Civil's involvement with the family goes beyond just a professional relationship and she loves the girls as though they were her own. When she finds out what has been done to them she vows to make it right and pursues things with the court system.
Although a work of fiction, this is a sad story about real-life events that happened not all that long ago. I found the story well done and I appreciated that it moved between the past and the present as Civil tells the story years later, revisiting the people that were so important during this pivotal time in her life and in history.
This would make a great book club selection and this could easily make its way onto my Best Books of the Year list.
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