This session confirmed the extensive research that went into this masterpiece and two things stuck out to me from that conversation. I was fortunate enough to participate in a Zoom chat with Heather Marshall about the inspiration behind this novel and her writing process. The extensive notes and resources included in the Author’s Notes highlighted the fact that the author spent a great deal of time doing extensive research before and during the writing process. There are so many lessons to be taken from this book, regardless of your views on the subject of choice and women’s rights.

On the surface Looking for Jane appears to be about abortion, but you will find that it is ultimately about choice in a broader sense, about “wanting to be a mother and not wanting to be a mother and all the gray areas in-between”. It is, unfortunately, a common misconception”

“Do not mistake your humanity for weakness. This is such an impactful book and is sadly even more of an important and timely read given the current conversations happening south of our borders about a woman’s right to choose. Heather did an amazing job writing these inspiring women, the multiple timelines and points of view without it becoming muddled. Looking for Jane is beautifully written and despite the topics becoming heavy at times, I could not stop reading and I continue to think about this book, weeks after finishing. Over 300,000 unmarried Canadian women were forced to give up their babies for adoption. These government-funded maternity homes existed in the postwar era and were run by multiple churches. It came as a great shock to me that these maternity homes actually existed. The third timeline and point of view followed twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell who discovered a shocking family secret in 1980. Evelyn Taylor eventually became a medical doctor and despite the threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to provide women with the choice that she never had. Women in these homes were forced to give up their babies for adoption. The second timeline and point of view followed Evelyn Taylor, who as a teenager in 1972 was sent to a maternity home for unwed women. Her determination to find the rightful recipient of the letter took her back to the 1970s to a group of courageous women who operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto.

Multiple timelines and points of view are explored starting with Angela Creighton discovering a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten mail in 2017. This masterfully told story follows three women whose lives are bound together by a long-lost letter, a mother’s love, and a secret network of women fighting for the right to choose and is inspired by true stories. Looking for Jane is a superb debut Historical Fiction novel from Canadian author Heather Marshall.

Looking for jane heather marshall