Sign-In
Cart
Until This Soul Departs
Hardcover
HorrorGeneral FictionLiterary Fiction
Publisher Price: $33.99
Please select the version of book you would like to purchase.
ISBN10: 1038335892
ISBN13: 9781038335890
Publisher: FriesenPress
Published: Mar 25 2025
Pages: 218
Weight: 0.86
Height: 0.63 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
ISBN13: 9781038335890
Publisher: FriesenPress
Published: Mar 25 2025
Pages: 218
Weight: 0.86
Height: 0.63 Width: 5.50 Depth: 8.50
Language: English
A Toronto inner-city hospital. January 1960. Well past midnight.
There it is, the first shriek. At least the brat sounds healthy. Is that the best I can expect, just that the infant isn't sickly-this red-faced newborn whose prospects appear so bleak?
The glacial fluorescent lights in this antiseptic cubicle that passes for a birthing centre allow for no shadows, no respite from their intrusive and impersonal glare.
I ought to sympathize with the resident on duty tonight, stuck here again for the third night in a row, assisting at another nameless birth. Tonight, he's too exhausted to react to that nurse's sarcastic comments. Right now, his only concern is finding his way to a bed, one where there are no pagers and no phones for the next few hours.
I have little reason to sympathize with that young mother, though. Her present situation is simply one of the many bits of unpleasantness that she has brought upon herself by her feckless behaviour.
The utter absence of human concern for her welfare in this institutional no man's land at the instant of giving birth? Well, that's just the way things are in any big city. If all goes according to plan, they can send her home within thirty-six hours; the administration's only concern will be the validity of her Ontario health card. Tomorrow, the whole sequence will be repeated.
And so begins our story. It's a story about aspiration, love, and betrayal. But most of all, it's about forgiveness.
There it is, the first shriek. At least the brat sounds healthy. Is that the best I can expect, just that the infant isn't sickly-this red-faced newborn whose prospects appear so bleak?
The glacial fluorescent lights in this antiseptic cubicle that passes for a birthing centre allow for no shadows, no respite from their intrusive and impersonal glare.
I ought to sympathize with the resident on duty tonight, stuck here again for the third night in a row, assisting at another nameless birth. Tonight, he's too exhausted to react to that nurse's sarcastic comments. Right now, his only concern is finding his way to a bed, one where there are no pagers and no phones for the next few hours.
I have little reason to sympathize with that young mother, though. Her present situation is simply one of the many bits of unpleasantness that she has brought upon herself by her feckless behaviour.
The utter absence of human concern for her welfare in this institutional no man's land at the instant of giving birth? Well, that's just the way things are in any big city. If all goes according to plan, they can send her home within thirty-six hours; the administration's only concern will be the validity of her Ontario health card. Tomorrow, the whole sequence will be repeated.
And so begins our story. It's a story about aspiration, love, and betrayal. But most of all, it's about forgiveness.
1 different editions
Also available
Also from
Puskas, Jim
Also in
Literary Fiction
Elizabeth Spencer: Novels & Stories (Loa #344): The Voice at the Back Door / The Light in the Piazza / Knights and Dragons / Stories
Spencer, Elizabeth
Hardcover
$38.00
James Fenimore Cooper: The Leatherstocking Tales Vol. 1 (Loa #26): The Pioneers / The Last of the Mohicans / The Prairie
Cooper, James Fenimore
Hardcover
From $19.99
The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde and Other Stories (Barnes & Noble Classics Series)
Stevenson, Robert Louis
Paperback
$5.99
Philip Roth: Novels 1973-1977 (Loa #165): The Great American Novel / My Life as a Man / The Professor of Desire
Roth, Philip
Hardcover
From $17.99
The Patrick Melrose Novels: Never Mind, Bad News, Some Hope, and Mother's Milk
St Aubyn, Edward
Paperback
From $9.99