The Midwife's Touch - Hardcover

by Sue Harrison (Author)

A rare gift determines one woman's destiny in the breathtaking debut of a new trilogy from the international-bestselling author of the Ivory Carver Trilogy.

At just six years old, it becomes clear that China Creed's birthright, passed down from her mother's side of the family, is the power to grant wishes with only a touch. In their small Ozark town, where superstition runs rampant, the only person who can be trusted with her secret is the Cherokee midwife and healer who makes China her apprentice.

After the tumult of the Civil War, a new doctor arrives in town who is curious about the lovely young woman who can birth babies and banish hexes. As his interest in her deepens and China's life is torn apart by her mother's death and accusations of witchcraft, she will have to decide if her secret--and her heart--are finally safe in his hands.

In this epic nineteenth-century tale of alienation and avarice, survival and sacrifice, China will travel from the backwoods of Missouri to the mansions of Manhattan, as she searches for a future where she is finally free to trust, to love, and to touch . . .

Praise for the writing of Sue Harrison

"Mythic storytelling." --The Washington PostBook World on Mother Earth, Father Sky

"Under Harrison's hand, ancient Alaska comes beautifully alive." --The Denver Post on Cry of the Wind

"Harrison expertly frames dramatic events with depictions of prehistoric life in the Aleutian Islands." --The New York Times Book Review on Mother Earth, Father Sky

"Harrison once again displays her first-rate storytelling talents . . . A warm yarn from the frozen North and as authentic as all get-out." --Kirkus Reviews on Song of the River

Author Biography

Sue Harrison grew up in Michigan's Upper Peninsula and graduated summa cum laude from Lake Superior State University with a bachelor of arts degree in English language and literature. At age twenty-seven, inspired by the forest that surrounded her home, and the outdoor survival skills she had learned from her father and her husband, Harrison began researching the people who understood best how to live in a harsh environment: the North American native peoples. She studied six Native American languages and completed extensive research on culture, geography, archaeology, and anthropology during the nine years she spent writing her first novel, Mother Earth, Father Sky. An international bestseller and selected by the American Library Association as one of the Best Books for Young Adults in 1991, Mother Earth, Father Sky is the first novel in Harrison's critically acclaimed Ivory Carver Trilogy, which includes My Sister the Moon and Brother Wind. She is the author of the Storyteller Trilogy, also set in prehistoric North America. Her novels have been translated into thirteen languages and published in more than twenty countries. Harrison lives with her family in Michigan.