The Virgin Cure
Author(s): Ami McKay
SECONDHAND BOOKS | Literary Fiction
The much-anticipated follow-up to The Birth House, The Virgin Cure secures Ami McKay's place as one of our most powerful storytellers.
"I am Moth, a girl from the lowest part of Chrystie Street, born to a slum-house mystic and the man who broke her heart."
The Virgin Cure begins in the tenements of lower Manhattan in the year 1871. A series of betrayals lead Moth, at only twelve years old, to the wild, murky world of the Bowery, where eventually she meets Miss Everett, the owner of a brothel simply known as "The Infant School." Miss Everett caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for companions who are "willing and clean," and the most desirable of them all are young virgins like Moth.
While Moth's housemates risk falling prey to the myth of the "virgin cure"--the belief that deflowering a girl can heal the incurable and tainted--her new friend Dr. Sadie warns Moth to question and observe the world around her so she won't share the same fate. Still, Moth dreams of answering to no one but herself. There's a high price for such independence, though, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.
2012. A trade paperback copy in fine, unmarked condition.
Product Information
A macabre and enchanting voyage into the underbelly of nineteenth century New York
"Finely crafted and remarkably researched.... While set in the past, the book informs the modern dialogue on feminism, the sex trade, and choice." - Stacey May Fowles, "The Walrus" "A worthy follow up to...The Birth House.... Character, setting, mood and plot are melded naturally to create a Dickensian world of deprivation and determination." - "Winnipeg Free Press" "A powerful novel, rooted in the same elements that made The Birth House both critically lauded and a bestseller.... One of McKay's gifts and skills as a writer is her ability to utterly immerse the reader in her fictional world.... A powerful, affecting novel." - Robert J. Wiersema, "National Post" "Fans of McKay's bestselling novel The Birth House are going to love The Virgin Cure.... McKay's vivid prose can trigger in readers the taste of a hot bowl of oyster stew, the reek of Chrystie Street tenement houses and the sound of a taffeta skirt's hem brushing the floor of a concert saloon.
Ami McKay's debut novel, THE BIRTH HOUSE was a # 1 bestseller in Canada, winner of three CBA Libris Awards, nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and a book club favourite around the world. Born and raised in Indiana, Ami now lives in Nova Scotia.
General Fields
- :
- : Orion Publishing Group, Limited
- : Orion
- : March 2012
- : 234mm X 153mm
- : United Kingdom
- : March 2012
- : books
Special Fields
- : 368
- : 823/.92
- : 1
- : Paperback
- : Ami McKay