Jane says

Debut novel explores justice and what it means to be a mother

They say inspiration strikes in strange places. For Heather Marshall, author of Looking for Jane, it came suddenly one evening in 2018.

Marshall explains, “I had recently read about Canadian maternity homes, mostly church-run, where unwed mothers were forced to give up their babies for adoption. Also, I had stumbled across an essay I wrote in grad school about the legalization of abortion in Canada.”

At the time, the Ontario-based Marshall, who works in communications but always wanted to write fiction, was drafting two separate novels about these issues. “But I was having trouble propelling the plot in each story,” she says. “Then I had a revelation: These two ideas were separate strands of the same story— the ongoing struggle of women fighting for agency over their own bodies. Once I started writing, the story poured out of me. The book nearly wrote itself.”

Looking for Jane follows three women through three different time frames. In the 1960s, teenage Evelyn becomes pregnant and is sent to a home for “fallen women,” where she suffers a traumatic experience. Later, she becomes a doctor and joins an illegal underground abortion network known only by its whispered code name: Jane.

In the 1980s, 20-year-old Nancy uncovers a shocking secret about her birth. When she unexpectedly becomes pregnant, she locates “Jane” and finds a place of her own within the network. And in 2017, Angela, desperate to conceive a child, discovers a mysterious letter containing a life-shattering confession that will lead her to Nancy and Evelyn.

Marshall says that although the novel may appear to be about abortion, it isn’t: “This novel is about motherhood. About wanting to be a mother and not wanting to be a mother, and all the grey areas”

This theme took on added relevance for Marshall, who happily became pregnant during the editing process and is now a mother. “Being pregnant while working on the book gave me perspective on what the girls in the maternity homes went through,” she tells the Connection. “And it gave me new insight into how trapped you might feel if you became pregnant and didn’t have legal control over your own body. As a result, I feel more strongly about reproductive rights than ever before.”

Marshall hopes that Looking for Jane will inspire readers to put pressure on the Canadian government to follow through on a 2018 Senate committee recommendation to issue a formal apology and make reparations to survivors of the maternity home system. The author’s note at the end of the book provides information on how to get involved. “Enough squeaky wheels can make a difference,” she says optimistically.

In the meantime, Marshall is at work on her next novel, to be released in 2023. Set in Berlin in 1940 and in northern England in the present day, it involves spies and wartime intrigue. “The story,” she says, “was inspired by Mona Parsons, the only Canadian civilian woman to be imprisoned and sentenced to death by the Nazis.”

There’s that word again. Inspiration. For Heather Marshall, who knows where and when it will strike next.

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