We, Jane by Aimee Wall

A remarkable debut about intergenerational female relationships and resistance found in the unlikeliest of places,We, Janeexplores the precarity of rural existence and the essential nature of abortion.

Searching for meaning in her Montreal life, Marthe begins an intense friendship with an older woman, also from Newfoundland, who tells her a story about purpose, about a duty to fulfill. It's back home, and it goes by the name of Jane.

Marthe travels back to a small town on the island with the older woman to continue the work of an underground movement in 60s Chicago: abortion services performed by women, always referred to as Jane. She commits to learning how to continue this legacy and protect such essential knowledge. But the nobility of her task and the reality of small-town, rural life compete, and personal fractures in the small movement become clear.

We, Janeprobes the importance of care work by women for women. It underscores the complexity of relationships in close circles, and beautifully captures the inevitable heartache of understanding home. From a celebrated translator of cutting-edge fiction, this isRed ClocksmeetsWomen Talking; a quiet, compelling novel about the magnitude of women's friendships and connection individually and across eras. (Book*Hug)

We, Jane was onthe 2021 Scotiabank Giller Prize longlist.

Aimee Wall is a writer and translator from Newfoundland who now lives in Montreal. Her translations include Vickie Gendreau's novelsTestamentandDrama Queens.We, Janeis her first novel.

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Why Aimee Wall wrote We, Jane

"I wanted to write about abortion, and I wanted to write about it from several angles. From the character having this experience, but also, in a more zoomed out way, the larger question of access and thinking of it as workand who does that work and how.

"When I was first thinking about writingWe, Jane, I started to think aboutwhat kinds of abortion novels are outthere. I had always been disappointed thatwhat I was encountering was either something set in the past, where the narrative tension was built in because it was difficult to access,or we are in the near-future, where all reproductive rights are being threatened. I was always frustratedthat there weren't as many contemporary accounts of abortion.

I knew there was going to be actual abortion in the book but I wanted them to be threads, rather than the one narrative drive.- Aimee Wall

"It was a conscious decision to not have the plot turn on an abortion.I knew there was going to be actual abortion in the book, but I wanted them to be threads, rather than the one narrative drive."

Read more in her interview with CBC Books.

Interviews with Aimee Wall