When Nighttime Shadows Fall: A Novel

by Diane Michael Cantor

A young social worker from Atlanta struggles to gain the trust of pregnant teens in rural Appalachia

In the early 1970s, Laura Bauer decides to leave college and head fifty miles north of her comfortable Atlanta home to manage a federally funded project aiding pregnant teenagers from the back roads of Appalachia. Almost as young as her clients, Laura is immediately confronted with―and almost overwhelmed by―a variety of young women in desperate circumstances, having no other source of prenatal care.

When Nighttime Shadows Fall , Diane Michael Cantor's second novel, portrays the world of these girls with compassion, hardscrabble humor, and reverence for their families' capacities to prevail despite hardships. Among the characters are Mavis, a defiant, tough-as-nails preacher's daughter; Lisa, a victimized thirteen-year-old; Nell, a shy girl who is constantly berated by herdomineering mother; and self-conscious Mandy, whose proud husband, twice her age, detests any form of charity. As an outsider whose urban upbringing is vastly different from those of her clients, Laura must win their trust and overcome her own inexperience and the magnitude of the need she finds.

The novel follows Laura as she struggles to locate her clients during their first trimesters, when they are still eligible for the project's services but often trying to conceal their pregnancies. As she overcomes their suspicions and tries to help them during those first critical months, Laura comes to realize she has prepared at least a few of them to open doors to their unexpected futures, just as they have helped her find the determination to face her own.

When Nighttime Shadows Fall movingly portrays Laura's clients as they search for love from boyfriends, husbands, and babies. Some find it, but ultimately, through powerful revelations, their strength comes from within.

192 pages, Paperback

Published November 30, 2017

Reviews

[Anita Johnson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It is 1971 and Laura Bauer has shocked her parents by deciding not to return to an elite private college in New York where she is an in-coming junior and on scholarship. Instead, she commutes 50 miles each way daily from her comfortable home in Atlanta to the poverty of Appalachian Georgia to work with pregnant teenagers. Medicaid did not yet exist but a federal program, the New Family Project, was created to give girls under 18 in their first trimester the chance to receive prenatal care and education, delivery at a hospital and postnatal examination.

Laura has to find girls who will qualify for the program. She is often met by families who resent her interference in their personal business, a politician and slum lord who reminded me of Boss Higgs on the old show, The Dukes of Hazzard, and unimaginable scenarios. She is also touched to the core by the love and protectiveness of so many of the parents and staff.

I know this sounds intense and depressing but the author has written with honesty, warmth and moments of wit. I cared so much about each of the girls that I hated to finish the book. Although it is written in the first person, every chapter is about a different girl or situation.

[Nancy · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.7 “Kindness is very powerful.” I might also add knowledge. In earl 1970’s, Laura leaves college early for an opportunity to work for a program called The Project Childcare. Laura goes to northeast Georgia to identify and meet girls that are in their first trimester and under the age of 18. This program was designed to help less fortunate girls learn about prenatal nutrition , diet, and life style , and provide hospital delivery care. The program would follow their progress for a year after baby.’s birth. . The girls must have a guardian sign off indicating they would follow certain rules. Several girls and their situations are developed in each chapter...with a variety of results. Short, easy read, and interesting. I enjoyed the first half better than second.

[Kerith · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was intrigued to read this "novel" about a government program to help teen mothers in north Georgia, set in the early 70s. It is a good overview on how the program worked, the girls it helped (or didn't) and the poverty and difficulties they were in. I'm glad I read it - however, it calls itself a novel but doesn't read like one. The characters, especially the main character, are not fleshed out and it doesn't hang together very well. It's a series of vignettes, really. With that in mind, I'd say it was well done.

[Brittany · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book took some warming up to. Initially, I was intrigued by the idea behind the novel and was excited to get it started but found that as the book went on, I was struggling to keep up with the multitude of underdeveloped characters. Their stories were kind of mushed together but it ended on a different foot. I'm not sure if this is a book I would read again.