- Hardcover: 448 pages
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster UK (5 Sept. 2019)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 1471156982
- ISBN-13: 978-1471156984
Synopsis
When nineteen-year-old Alice Copeman becomes pregnant, she is forced by her father and stepmother to give up the baby. She simply cannot be allowed to bring shame upon her family. But all Alice can think about is the small, kitten-like child she gave away, and she mourns the father, a young soldier, so beloved, who will never have the chance to know his daughter.
Edith and Philip Burns, a childless couple, yearn for a child of their own. When they secretly adopt a baby girl, Irene, their life together must surely be complete. Irene grows up knowing that she is different from other children, but no one will tell her the full truth.
Putting hopes of marriage and children behind her, Alice embarks upon a pioneering medical career, striving to make her way in a male-dominated world. Meanwhile, Irene struggles to define her own life, eventually leaving her Suffolk home to find work in London.
As two extraordinary stories intertwine across two decades, will secrets long-buried at last come to light?
Review
I always look forward to a new book from Rachel Hore, so it has been a delight to read and review The Love Child. Set in the first half of the of the twentieth century the book follows Alice Coperman who had a baby she was forced to give up for adoption in 1917, and Irene, her daughter as she grows up knowing she is different in her family and how this effects her. As the lives of these two characters intertwine, and the rights of women begin to change, the consequences of their actions continue to ripple in their lives and tell a story of love, family, loss, separation and hope.
The Love Child is split into the narratives of Alice and Irene as they make their way in the world. The first half of the twentieth century was a period when things began to change for women, and through their stories we see how the changes effected their respective generations. We take for granted that women are entitled to an education, can apply for any job, have access to contraception and the right to vote. Alice trained as a doctor and was one of only two women in her class and very much treated as a lesser person and not taken seriously by her tutors and other doctors. She had a real strength of character to become a doctor and was not frightened to follow what she believed in to help others, in particular contraception advice for the lower class women who were having up to eleven children. She never forgot her baby, and the shame she was made to feel about it, but decided to make something of her life so her sacrifice would not be in vain.
Irene was the character I really felt for in this book. She may have been adopted by a good family, her father was a solicitor, but she was always made to feel different by her mother. Her mother struggled with her adopted daughter, especially after having her own son a couple of years after the adoption. She always made a point of telling people that Irene was adopted, which has a lasting effect on her. It was her relationship with Tom and his mother that I felt helped her feel loved and accepted. They were an unconventional family as Tom’s mother wasn’t married to his father and they didn’t live together. This was obviously frowned upon in the town, but for Irene they gave her a sanctuary, a place where feeling different was accepted and didn’t matter.
I don’t want to say too much about the plot as I don’t want to give anything away, but the social history is really interesting as the attitude to women slowly began to change. Rachel Hore always writes beautifully and captures the emotions of both women over the years as they live their lives and how that one decision in 1917 effects both of them.
The Love Child is an emotive and compelling read full of heart and soul. I found myself drawn in to both Alice and Irene’s stories, and how such a devastating decision to give a baby up never left Alice or Irene in her new family. A moving and thought provoking read that I highly recommend.
Thank you to Simon & Schuster and Anne Cater for inviting me to be part of the blog tour for this wonderful. book.
As always, thank you for reading my review and I hope you will share the book love on social media.