The Wet Nurse's Tale by Erica Eisdorfer.

My bookclub is going to discuss The Wet Nurse's Tale for our 9/27 meeting. The author, Erica Eisdorfer will be joining my bookclub. I can't wait to meet her! I love historical fiction and this fell into that category. I have never really read anything about wet nurses of the Victorian time period. What a pretty dismal life wet nurses had.

Here is a review from amazon.com:

In her first novel, Eisdorfer offers as a guide to Victorian England her entertaining and surprising protagonist, Susan Rose. A bawdy young woman who could easily have walked off the pages of The Canterbury Tales, Susan ends up wet-nursing after getting unexpectedly and illicitly pregnant, and her alcoholic and abusive father forces her to leave her child and take up the occupation. Her journey into the intimate lives of England's upper crust proves an illuminating and dangerous one as Susan jumps from family to family—until her father sells her son. As Susan attempts to balance other peoples' babies with her quest to regain her own, she is faced with difficult choices between duty and love, and between her life and her child's. Whether she is carousing in the Jewish quarter or planning how to reclaim her son, Susan navigates the stratified social world with humorous vigor. A promiscuous, randy and hefty lady, Susan's a vibrant character, at once sweet and scheming, and given to such a crass frankness that even readers wary of historicals may want to give this a look.

My review:

Susan Rose certainly had a very hard life. I think even if she wasn't a wet nurse her life would be hard. Her father was a horrible man, but as much as her father was hard her mother was a saint! I love historical fiction so I have to say I really liked this book even though there were some sad parts. Sometimes you have to read about how someone's life in another time is to understand how far we have come. If you like historical fiction and an interesting read I would recommend this book.