Delaware County District Library

Lazaretto, a novel, Diane McKinney-Whetstone

eng

illustrations

no index present

fiction

Lazaretto

913573084

Diane McKinney-Whetstone

a novel

In post-Civil War Philadelphia, a young black woman gives birth to a child fathered by her wealthy white employer. The father has already arranged to take the baby, so it falls to Sylvia, the midwife's apprentice, to tell Meda that her child is dead--a lie that will define the course of both women's lives. A devastated Meda dedicates herself to working in an orphanage, and becomes a surrogate mother to two white boys; while Sylvia, fueled by guilt, throws herself into her nursing studies and finds a post at the Lazaretto, the country's first quarantine hospital. The live-in staff are mostly black Philadelphians, and when two of them arrange to marry, the black community prepares for a party on its grounds. But the celebration is plunged into chaos when gunshots ring out across the river. As Sylvia races to the victim, the fates of Meda's beloved orphans also converge on the Lazaretto as conflicts escalate, lies collapse, and secrets begin to surface

general