Ariel Lawhon’s The Frozen River is a fictionalized story about one year in the life of the real midwife and healer, Martha Ballard, based on the diary she began in 1785 and kept until her death in 1812. In the diary, she shared the daily weather, her household tasks, her midwifery duties, her medical practice and the dangers of life in the new nation.
Surprisingly, Mrs. Ballard delivered almost 1,000 babies without ever losing a mother.
In the winter of 1789, a dead body is pulled from the Kennebec River in Maine. Mrs. Ballard examines the body and announces the man has been murdered, but the Harvard-educated doctor new to town contradicts the healer’s declaration.
Mrs. Ballard begins her own investigation in search of the truth because a few months earlier, she had documented an alleged rape of the minister’s wife by the dead man and a local wealthy colonel. Over the long winter, the case goes to trial, and her diary is entered as evidence. Her determination for justice puts her own life and her family’s life in danger.
My favorite books are the ones when I learn something new in an engrossing story. The Frozen River is about Martha Ballard and the women living in New England in the late 1700s, a time when most American history is male-dominated. Female voices were not relevant, but thankfully, the Ballard family preserved her diaries for future generations.
Make sure to read the Author’s Note at the end of the novel. Lawhon shares insight to her writing process and more about Martha Ballard. Also, I highly recommend the audiobook and the narrator Jane Oppenheimer.
Look for this recommendation and other books at Knox County Online Library or your local independent bookstore each week.
Linda Sullivan is an avid reader and wants to make you one, too. For more recommendations or just to talk books, reach out to her at thebookwhisperertn@gmail.com. She can also be found @thebookwhisperertn on Instagram.
