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Milk Fever





Price: $19.95

Page Count: 262

Publication Date: October 2013

ISBN: 978-1-927335-20-8

In 1789, Armande, a wet nurse who is known for the mystical qualities of her breast milk, goes missing. Céleste, a cunning servant girl who Armande once saved from shame and starvation, sets out to find her. A snuffbox found in the snow, the unexpected arrival of a gentleman and the discovery of the wet nurse’s diary, deepen the mystery. Using Armande’s diary as a map to her secret past, Céleste fights to save her from those plotting to steal the wisdom of her milk. Milk Fever is a rich and inspired tale set on the eve of the French Revolution—a delicious peek into this age’s history. The story explores the fight for women’s rights and the rise in clandestine literature laying bare sexuality, the nature of love and the magic of books to transform lives.  

“Milk Fever is a sensuous and subversive novel, set at a time when printed books were beginning to change the world. Lissa M. Cowan draws together motherhood, breastfeeding and learning, and sets them centre stage in a story about the struggle for freedom, justice and reason: abstractions which here come to full, fleshy life.”
– Kathy Page, author of The Find

“Lissa M. Cowan’s Milk Fever is irresistible. The story hums along with possibility, both for the peasants of 18th century Franceand Céleste, the wild and clever servant girl who risks her life for her protectress, a wet nurse with seemingly magical milk. Anything can happen in these pages: revolution, love, mysticism, even betrayal. Cowan gracefully moves from a rioting crowd to a small bookshop, from the King’s court to a small village in the mountains, and in this way reveals her remarkable talent in shining a light on worlds big and small.”
– Jen Sookfong Lee, Canadian broadcaster and author of The Better Mother