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F i c t i o n   &   P o e t r y   w i t h   F e r t i l i t y   T h e m e s

Chase, Joan, During the Reign of the Queen of Persia. A beautifully written story of young girls observing their aunt and grandmother at mothering.

Haruf, Kent, Plainsong, Random House, 1999. A pregnant teenager is given refuge by two bachelor ranchers, whose welcome forms a new family.

Levin, Dana, In the Surgical Theatre, American Poetry Review, 1999. Poems by a woman who spent her first two months in an incubator.

McKinney-Whetstone, Diane. Tumbling, Morrow, 1996. When babies mysteriously appear on Noon and Herbie's doorsteps, they take them in. While raising the girls, Noon finds solace and comfort in her church; Herbie finds these with a jazz singer named Ethel--until Noon begins to fight for the preservation of her So. Philadelphia neighborhood. I couldn't put this one down.

Singer, Katie, The Wholeness of a Broken Heart, Riverhead Books, 1999. Called "a mother-daughter masterpiece" by Self Magazine, the novel presents four generations of Jewish women and a child who was miscarried in 1900. They speak in first person about their lives through pograms, immigration, abortion, and life in suburban Cleveland. www.katiesinger.com.

Smiley, Jane, A Thousand Acres. A beautifully told story of a farmer and his three daughters. One dies of cancer, another repeatedly miscarries her babies--possibly because their water is contaminated by pesticide use.