Murray’s Reviews > Mother of Light: A Novel > Status Update

“That familiar feeling of powerlessness washed over her. Who was to say who God decided to spare or take? But she had so often wondered why it had to be the little ones, so bright and innocent and full of life? She couldn't understand why they had been allowed such a short stay, why children had to fight so hard upon arrival into the world only for their little souls to be snatched up later with illness.”

A fiery young midwife, 24, sent to work with coastal people in Iceland in the 1880s, runs into a lot of resentment and pushback when she attempts to assert her independence as a skilled practitioner.

I like to read, even write, in many different genres. It’s exciting and always a discovery. But my overall favorite category is tout le monde. I adore world literature. Mexico, Venezuela, France, Holland, Kenya, China, Japan, you name it, I want to read novels from authors in all the countries on the planet. Few things are so thrilling and satisfying. And here we have a story from Iceland (where I’ve been).