Take My Hand

Goodreads Choice Award

Nominee for Best Historical Fiction (2022)

Inspired by true events that rocked the nation, a profoundly moving novel about a Black nurse in post-segregation Alabama who blows the whistle on a terrible wrong done to her patients, from the New York Times bestselling author of Wench.

Montgomery, Alabama 1973. Fresh out of nursing school, Civil Townsend has big plans to make a difference, especially in her African American community. At the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, she intends to help women make their own choices for their lives and bodies.

But when her first week on the job takes her down a dusty country road to a worn down one-room cabin, she’s shocked to learn that her new patients are children—just 11 and 13 years old. 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. As Civil grapples with her role, she takes India, Erica and their family into her heart. Until one day, she arrives at the door to learn the unthinkable has happened and nothing will ever be the same for any of them.

Decades later, with her daughter grown and a long career in her wake, Dr. Civil Townsend is ready to retire, to find her peace and to leave the past behind. But there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten.That must not be forgotten.

Because history repeats what we don’t remember.

Genre

Historical Fiction

359 pages, Hardcover

First published April 12, 2022

Literary awards

Hurston/Wright Legacy Award Nominee for General Fiction (2023),

Goodreads Choice Award Nominee for Historical Fiction(2022),

NAACP Image Award for Fiction (2023)

Average Goodreads Rating - 4.38

My Verdict

The history of medical mistreatment of Black people and the poor by medical professionals is as long as the history of medicine in the Americas, and unfortunately, Alabama is the home base for many of these atrocities. This novel references the Tuskegee Experiments, for example. This novel hones in on the horrific forced annual sterilization of between 100,000 and 150,000 recipients of welfare benefits in the 1970s, and it is inspired by the true story of Minnie Lee and Mary Alice Relf. The Relf sisters were mentally disabled children, 12 and 14 years old, respectively, when they were surgically sterilized without their knowledge.

This is a novel that you will not be able to put down. This is a novel that will make you sick to your stomach. This is a novel that will make you cry. It will keep you up at night. Take My Hand is as beautifully written as it is heartbreaking. I give this one a strong 4.5 stars .