1973, Alabama. Civil Townsend is a young African-American nurse, freshly graduated and hired in a family planning in Montgomery. Convinced of the usefulness of her work, she is totally devoted to her patients and ensures pregnancy follow-ups, but also the prescriptions of contraceptives to the young girls in her charge.
When she meets Erica and India Williams, aged thirteen and eleven, Civil’s life will change dramatically. Because, very quickly, she wonders: why must she impose contraception on them when they are so young?
Has the family given its consent? Taking doubts, Civil begins to investigate the practices in place in the medical community of his time. At the risk of losing her job, she will do everything to expose one of the most unspeakable policies in the United States.
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Dolen Perkins-Valdez teaches literature at the American University in Washington. Her third novel, Take my hand, is his first work translated in France.
DOSSIER – Novels for the 2021 literary season: browse the good pages