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The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
The Book of the Unnamed Midwife
The Road to Nowhere
Dystopian, Post-apocolyptics
47North
October 11, 2016
Kindle, Paperback, Audible, MP3 CD
300
When she fell asleep, the world was doomed. When she awoke, it was dead.
In the wake of a fever that decimated the earth’s population—killing women and children and making childbirth deadly for the mother and infant—the midwife must pick her way through the bones of the world she once knew to find her place in this dangerous new one. Gone are the pillars of civilization. All that remains is power—and the strong who possess it.
A few women like her survived, though they are scarce. Even fewer are safe from the clans of men, who, driven by fear, seek to control those remaining. To preserve her freedom, she dons men’s clothing, goes by false names, and avoids as many people as possible. But as the world continues to grapple with its terrible circumstances, she’ll discover a role greater than chasing a pale imitation of independence.
After all, if humanity is to be reborn, someone must be its guide.
“Went to sleep and the world was dying…woke up and it was dead and gone.”
The thought of waking up to a world, where everything you know and everyone that you love is gone, has to top my 
list of nightmare scenarios, especially when what is left is the worst of humanity; the evil and moral depravity that is usually buried deep but is now walking the deserted streets of every nation. Where the number of remaining males eclipses the number of females, a horribly dangerous environment for the women.
This is the setting for book 1 of The Road to Nowhere series, The Book of the Unnamed Midwife by Meg Elison. An epidemic of apocalyptic proportions has ravaged the world and unnamed (or multi-named – as you will understand as the story unfold) O.B. nurse wakes from her sickness to a frightening reality. The story is her struggle to survive in such a brutal and dangerous environment.
Let me tell you this is not the first type of book I would grab for reading
enjoyment. I like my books to give me moments away from the realities of life, not magnify the horror and evil found with a simple click on the net. But Meg tells this story from an intriguing perspective. Imagine coming upon a private diary and a video camera (events are interspersed with internal musings) and they become your view of life in this new world. I didn’t think this format be compelling, but because of Meg’s writing skill and imagination, it results in a intriguing and captivating work.
Book two The Book of Etta is scheduled to be released February 21, 2017, and that is encouraging because I feel that the book’s ending was anticlimactic, considering all that transpired in the story. It some ways this was due to the diary entry approach to the book. The ending felt more like an epilogue than a conclusion. Hopefully, it is just an obscure bridge to the up and coming sequel.
Tanya’s love for books has been a lifelong passion that she likes sharing with others. Reading is also the thing that relaxes her after a day of juggling the many responsibilities that come with being being wife to an amazing man, mother to four great kids spread around the world, business manager, and farm hand on their place in southwest Missouri; home to Akaushi cattle and a menagerie of pygmy goats, horses, chickens, dogs and cats.
