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Touching Distance | 
 enlarge | Author: Rebecca Abrams
Publisher: Macmillan
Category: Book
List Price: £12.99
Buy New: £9.09
You Save: £3.90 (30%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 26919
Media: Hardcover
Pages: 310
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 8.7 x 5.4 x 1.3
ISBN: 0230015557
Dewey Decimal Number: 823.92
EAN: 9780230015555
ASIN: 0230015557
Publication Date: July 4, 2008
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Usually dispatched within 24 hours
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| Customer Reviews:
poignant tale August 15, 2008
This is a remarkably crafted and finely balanced novel, which has both a vivid setting and an intensely personal tale. The author weaves the details of different threads of the personal lives of the main characters that bring Alec and Elizabeth Gordon to life within the world of 1790 Aberdeen. She captures the feel of life in a different time, without ever losing the details and depth of Alec and Elizabeth's lives. The novel effectively relates how time does not necessarily move in one direction, as childhood memories reappear at different points of the novel, in ways that illuminate the choices made by Alec and Elizabeth.
The world of Aberdeen is alive with the old traditions and the emergence of the Scottish (and wider) Enlightenment. Echoes of wider debates over science and belief quietly emerge through the novel. The cost of childbirth in illness or death of the mother was common (and still is in many countries, as the author notes in her post-script), and Alec's quest for the cause of maternal deaths puts him in conflict with established medical and midwife traditions.
The tension between Alec's dedication to his patients and his increasing distance from his wife echoes the painful life experience that often we end up fighting for something that is 'right' in a way that comes at a great price in other parts of our lives.
A gripping story, beautifully written. August 8, 2008
A gripping story, beautifully written. It spans both the historical and the deeply intimate.
I wasn't able to put it down and was pulled into the compelling world of the Doctor and his wife and the frustrations of a society in the embryonic stages of medical progress. The portrayal of Aberdeen life, the dialogue and the fantastic characterisation make this the best historical novel that I have read for years.
I'll never trust an obstetrician again unless this book is on their shelf...
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