BLOG TOUR: Belly Woman - Benjamin Black

What happens to pregnant women when a humanitarian catastrophe strikes?

Belly Woman shines a light on a story often left untold.

May, 2014. Sierra Leone is ranked the country with the highest death rate of pregnant women in the world. The same month, Ebola crosses in from neighbouring Guinea. Arriving a few weeks later, Dr Benjamin Black finds himself at the centre of an exponential Ebola outbreak. From impossible decisions on the maternity ward to moral dilemmas at the Ebola Treatment Centres. One mistake, one error of judgment, could spell disaster.

An eye-opening work of reportage and advocacy, Belly Woman chronicles the inside journey through an unfolding global health crisis and the struggle to save the lives of young mothers. As Black reckons with the demons of the past, he must try to learn the lessons for a different, more resilient, future.

 

What did I think?

Belly Woman is a medical memoir set during the West African Ebola epidemic of 2014 to 2016 and I think it's important to mention the trigger warnings for this book.  There are a lot of miscarriages and stillbirths so it might prove difficult reading for anyone who has experienced this themselves, however, the western experience of such devastating events is in stark contrast to the experiences depicted in this book.

Dr Benjamin Black was there on the front line but instead of feeling proud of everything he accomplished in Sierra Leone he feels ashamed.  Ashamed he couldn't do more...ashamed that so many pregnant women didn't leave his care with a live baby...ashamed of the health service we take for granted but don't support enough...I could go on.  Note that this is my interpretation of Benjamin Black's feeling of shame as I completely understood why he would feel that way.

For a non-fiction book, the pacing is incredibly fast as it is so well written and full of drama that it feels as if it's a fiction novel.  Unfortunately for the people of West Africa, this story is very real.  Before COVID-19 there was Ebola, but this mainly affected Africa so to most of us in the UK it was simply a foreign news story.  This is the true story of Ebola and its devastating effect.

Harrowing, honest and raw, Belly Woman is a powerful and unforgettable novel that everyone should read.  Very highly recommended.

I received a digital ARC to read and review for the blog tour and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.

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Everything Happens for a Reason - Katie Allen

 

When Rachel’s baby is stillborn, she becomes obsessed with the idea that saving a stranger’s life months earlier is to blame. An unforgettable, heart-wrenching, warm and funny debut.

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Mum-to-be Rachel did everything right, but it all went wrong. Her son, Luke, was stillborn and she finds herself on maternity leave without a baby, trying to make sense of her loss.

When a misguided well-wisher tells her that “everything happens for a reason”, she becomes obsessed with finding that reason, driven by grief and convinced that she is somehow to blame. She remembers that on the day she discovered her pregnancy, she’d stopped a man from jumping in front of a train, and she’s now certain that saving his life cost her the life of her son.

Desperate to find him, she enlists an unlikely ally in Lola, an Underground worker, and Lola’s seven-year-old daughter, Josephine, and eventually tracks him down, with completely unexpected results... Both a heart-wrenchingly poignant portrait of grief and a gloriously uplifting and disarmingly funny story of a young woman’s determination, Everything Happens for a Reason is a bittersweet, life-affirming read and, quite simply, unforgettable.

What did I think?

Oh my goodness, where do I start?  What a beautiful, completely unique book.  Katie Allen's debut novel is poignant, incredibly personal and surprisingly funny.  I absolutely loved it and the synopsis is right: it is completely unforgettable.

Rachel suffers a most terrible loss when she gives birth to her stillborn son, Luke.  Perhaps the worst thing that anyone can say to someone who is grieving is 'everything happens for a reason' but Rachel takes this comment literally and tries to find the reason that Luke died.  Rachel believes that saving the life of a man who was about to jump in front of a train was the reason that her son died and this man lived.  Through dogged determination, we follow Rachel's journey as she searches for the mystery man and makes life-long friends along the way.

The format of the book is very special indeed; I actually didn't realise what I was reading in the first few pages and when it hit me I thought my heart would break.  Although it is such a terribly sad subject, especially as the author has first hand knowledge of stillbirth, the whole feel of the book is surprisingly warm and funny.  It feels as if the process of writing her thoughts, feelings and actions is incredibly cathartic for Rachel and, although Luke is never far from her mind, having such a massive project on the go does help take her mind off her loss.

I've often considered how highly sensitive we become when something bad happens to us.  It seems like everyone is so insensitive but I've often wondered if that is because we are so over-sensitive at that particular moment in time.  Rachel has lost her baby and it seems like every way she turns she sees babies; everything reminds her of Luke and the fact that he is not here.  I'm not saying that there aren't insensitive people out there, comments like 'everything happens for a reason' and 'life goes on' prove that people often don't think before they speak, but you don't want others to put their life on hold because you are sad.  It reminded me to be more sensitive to people's feelings and that just being there for someone and saying nothing is better than saying something inappropriate.  Actions really do speak louder than words.

Everything Happens for a Reason is heartrending, honest and humourous; I've never read anything like it before.  So thought-provoking and poignant, it's a completely wonderful debut and highly recommended reading.

Many thanks to Orenda Books for sending me an ARC of this wonderful book; all opinions are my own.

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