That must not be forgotten.īecause history repeats what we don’t remember. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace, and to leave the past behind. Until one day she arrives at their door to learn the unthinkable has happened, and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.ĭecades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica, and their family into her heart. Neither of the Williams sisters has even kissed a boy, but they are poor and Black, and for those handling the family’s welfare benefits, that’s reason enough to have the girls on birth control. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she hopes to help women shape their destinies, to make their own choices for their lives and bodies.īut when her first week on the job takes her along a dusty country road to a worn-down one-room cabin, Civil is shocked to learn that her new patients, Erica and India, are children-just eleven and thirteen years old. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend intends to make a difference, especially in her African American community. Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a searing and compassionate new novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible injustice done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench “Deeply empathetic yet unflinching in its gaze…an unforgettable exploration of responsibility and redemption.”-Celeste Ng Winner of the 2023 NAACP Image Award for Outstanding Literary Work - Fiction

The book take my hand