The Quintland Sisters by Shelley Wood

The story of the famous Quints of Canada, as told through the journal of a young nurse attached to them and the newspaper clippings and letters she saves.

Mixed feelings about this one, sadly. I'm fascinated by the story of the Dionnes and the extraordinary series of events, and this covers the first five years of the girls' lives well. There are details here I didn't know before and I found that interesting. However, Shelley's treatment of the Dionne parents borders on making them panto villans; Mme Dionne is a big woman, so she must be evil, and to make sure we know that we're told every time she appears, and M Dionne is dark and lurks, so he's clearly evil too. Although Emma, our narrator, talks about how individual the girls are, they're largely interchangeable in the narrative. Of course, children at that age often act quite similarly anyway.

The ending came out of nowhere. Another reviewer said it was absolutely clear who the man was. I don't agree; it could be one of several people as far as I'm concerned. I don't suppose it's really the point, anyway, but it was so abrupt it coloured my feelings about the whole book.

However, on the whole I did very much enjoy this book, and I liked the extra information at the end. A couple of the reading questions have helped me to formulate my thoughts about this entertaining but ever so slightly flawed novel. I'll definitely look out for more novels by Shelley.

In Shelley Wood’s fiction debut, readers are taken inside the devastating true story of the Dionne Quintuplets, told from the perspective of one young woman who meets them at the moment of their birth.

Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets: five tiny miracles born to French farmers in hardscrabble Northern Ontario in 1934. Emma cares for them through their perilous first days and when the government decides to remove the babies from their francophone parents, making them wards of the British king, Emma signs on as their nurse.

Over 6,000 daily visitors come to ogle the identical “Quints” playing in their custom-built playground; at the height of the Great Depression, the tourism and advertising dollars pour in. While the rest of the world delights in their sameness, Emma sees each girl as unique: Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Marie, and Émilie. With her quirky eye for detail, Emma records every strange twist of events in her private journals.

As the fight over custody and revenues turns increasingly explosive, Emma is torn between the fishbowl sanctuary of Quintland and the wider world, now teetering on the brink of war. Steeped in research, Quintland™ is a novel of love, heartache, resilience, and enduring sisterhood—a fictional, coming-of-age story bound up in one of the strangest true tales of the past century.