(Image from Barnes & Noble)

When 17-year-old Emma Trimpany becomes a reluctant assistant to the local midwife, she has no idea she's about to become part of one of the biggest news stories in the history of northern Ontario.  She's as shocked as the midwife when their patient—a French woman, who already has five children—gives birth to five more.  All girls, the Dionne quintuplets are the first of their kind to survive infancy.  As the tiny babies grow into healthy, boisterous toddlers, the world watches with fascination and amazement.

As penniless farmers with a house already bursting full, the Dionnes need plenty of help with both the physical and financial aspects of raising their girls.  In exchange for that aid, their home becomes even more overrun with medical personnel, journalists, and other curious onlookers.  Shy Emma doesn't relish the attention, but she loves the girls fiercely.  To her, they are not a homogenous zoo exhibit; they're children with individual personalities and quirks.  When the Canadian government steps in, taking the babies from their parents and making them subjects of the British king, Emma can't bear to leave them.  Despite the hoopla surrounding their care, she stays on as their nurse.

With the Great Depression raging, the quintuplets are a bright spot in people's lives.  As Quintland takes on an increasingly circus-like atmosphere, with thousands of visitors streaming in to gawk at the captive girls, the children's guardians fighting over their care, and everyone grappling for a piece of the fortune the girls are bringing in, Emma must ask herself how far she's willing to go to protect a brood of children that's not even her own ...

I'd never heard of the Dionne Quintuplets before reading How the Light Gets In by Louise Penny, but now I find their story absolutely fascinating.  The Quintland Sisters, a debut novel by Shelley Wood, brings the tale to life through a young, fictional nurse who grows up alongside the famous siblings.  Based on Wood's exhaustive research, the book combines fact with fancy to create an intriguing, thought-provoking read that asks penetrating questions about medical ethics, the price of celebrity, the rights of parents, etc.  While The Quintland Sisters is an episodic novel, with no real plot, I found it riveting nonetheless.  Some may grow bored with the 440-page tome, but I quite enjoyed it.

(Readalikes:  I can't think of anything, but reading The Quintland Sisters definitely makes me want to look into the real story through books like Family Secrets: The Dionne Quintuplets' Autobiography by Jean-Yves Soucy, We Were Five by James Brough, etc.)

Grade:

If this were a movie, it would be rated:

for brief, mild language (no F-bombs), brief violence, and disturbing subject matter

To the FTC, with love:  I received an ARC of The Quintland Sisters from the generous folks at HarperCollins via those at TLC Book Tours in exchange for an honest review.  Thank you!

--

Want more opinions on The Quintland Sisters?  Follow along on the book's blog tour by clicking on the links below: