Looking for Jane

November 21, 2022
Marshall’s sweeping debut follows series of Canadian women in their struggles for reproductive autonomy. In a Toronto antique store in 2017, Angela Creighton, who’s suffered a second miscarriage, discovers an undelivered letter addressed to Nancy Mitchell. It was written by Nancy’s mother, Frances, who confesses as she’s dying that in 1961 Nancy had been adopted from St. Agnes’s Home for Unwed Mothers. As an adoptee connected with her own birth mother, Angela decides to track Nancy down and pass along the information. Marshall then moves back to 1979, when Nancy, a college student, helps her cousin obtain an illegal abortion. Only after her cousin nearly dies does Nancy learn about the underground abortion access network called Jane. Two years later, Nancy requires Jane’s services for herself, and she believes so strongly in Jane’s mission that she volunteers as an organizer until abortion is legalized in 1988, work she keeps secret—along with her own termination—from her new husband. Marshall vividly brings to life the dangers involved with operating Jane and the cruelty of the nuns running St. Agnes’s, where Evelyn was forced to give up her baby. It’s a page-turner that unfortunately falters with an unnecessary, gimmicky twist involving two of the women. Still, readers will be moved by the courage and thoughtfulness with which these characters face their dilemmas. Agent: Hayley Steed, Madeleine Milburn Literary.