Fiction by Louise Ferrier
In 1928 Edward and Eleanor Hamilton are living a good life in England. Eleanor is a lady of good breeding and Edward is a scholar, specializing in research on the current eugenics movement. They have a four-year old daughter called Mabel and another baby on the way. Both believe that society would be well protected by laws that prevent "lower orders" of people from increasing in number, and forcing deficient individuals to be institutionalized. After all, poor Eleanor's own mother was killed by a criminal degenerate!
But when little Mabel begins exhibiting disturbing symptoms of epilepsy, Eleanor starts to re-examine this line of thought. Is Mabel's life really worth less because she faces a medical challenge? Edward's plan is to quickly put Mabel away in a care home and forget about her; he both fears political repercussions and is genuinely baffled as to how to help his daughter. But Eleanor can't bear that...can she?
This was a thought-provoking story --who knew that it wasn't just the Nazis espousing these ideas?!-- but it was upsetting to read. It was well-written but I had trouble with it. I will say the author came up with a decent resolution at the end.
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