Looking For Jane

Looking For Jane is a story about three women whose lives are connected by a long-lost letter, secrets, loss, and the fight for women's right to choose.

This is an exemplary debut novel that pulled me immediately into the story with its strong writing, well-defined characters, and its focus on the hard-fought struggle for women's reproductive rights in Canada. This book will appeal to fans of Canadian authors Genevieve Graham and Joanna Goodman because of its perfect blend of lesser-known Canadian history within a gripping and emotional fictional story.

Looking For Jane follows three women - Angela, Evelyn and Nancy - who live in Toronto in the 1970's, 1980's and 2010's. It is through the experiences, struggles and complex family lives of these three women that Marshall humanizes the issue of reproductive choice. I sometimes found the switch between the characters a bit confusing, but I appreciate how the author shows different sides of the issues and doesn't shy away from detailing the restrictions to women's rights in different decades in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. From backstreet abortions, post-war church-run maternity homes, adoption, and birth to the often horrifying and long-lasting consequences when governments, society, and the church deny women the right to choose. Sadly, this struggle isn't over for women in many parts of the world and it's sobering to think that it wasn't that long ago that women in Canada had such limited options.

Looking For Jane is a well-researched, thought-provoking, and powerful fictional story that weaves a dark part of women's history in Canada; a time when women had no choice, no voice, and no rights when it came to their own reproductive decisions. This is a must-read story that honours the women who have come before us, those who showed strength and tenacity so that we may now have the right to choose. 

Disclaimer: My sincere thanks to the publisher Simon & Schuster Canada for this complimentary copy of this book provided in exchange for my honest review.  All opinions are my own.

My Rating: 5 stars

Author: Heather Marshall

Genre: Historical Fiction (Canada), Canadian

Type and Source: Trade Paperback from publisher

Publisher: Simon and Schuster Canada

First Published: March 1, 2022

Opening Line: It was a perfectly ordinary day when a 

truly extraordinary letter was delivered to the wrong mailbox.

Book Description from GoodReads: For readers of Joanna Goodman and Genevieve Graham comes a masterful debut novel about three women whose lives are bound together by a long-lost letter, a mother’s love, and a secret network of women fighting for the right to choose—inspired by true stories.

Tell them you’re looking for Jane.

2017

When Angela Creighton discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession in a stack of forgotten mail, she is determined to find the intended recipient. Her search takes her back to the 1970s when a group of daring women operated an illegal underground abortion network in Toronto known only by its whispered code name: Jane...

1971

As a teenager, Dr. Evelyn Taylor was sent to a home for “fallen” women where she was forced to give up her baby for adoption—a trauma she has never recovered from. Despite harrowing police raids and the constant threat of arrest, she joins the Jane Network as an abortion provider, determined to give other women the choice she never had.

1980

After discovering a shocking secret about her family history, twenty-year-old Nancy Mitchell begins to question everything she has ever known. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she feels like she has no one to turn to for help. Grappling with her decision, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own alongside Dr. Taylor within the network’s ranks, but she can never escape the lies that haunt her.

Weaving together the lives of three women, Looking for Jane is an unforgettable debut about the devastating consequences that come from a lack of choice—and the enduring power of a mother’s love.