New fiction

My good friend and former professor, the lovely and talented Claire Holden Rothman, has a new novel out, a fictional biography of Maude Abbott. One of McGill's first women graduates, a cardiologist, and early curator of McGill's Medical Musuem, Abbott is more or less unheard of by most McGill students, and likely some faculty as well. She was Osler's protégé, and was on McGill's academic staff as a Lecturer in Pathology, and eventually as an Assistant Professor.

Oh, and Diego Rivera painted her into his 1943 mural of the 50 most important heart specialists in the world, which hangs in the National Institute of Cardiology of Mexico City.

I think it's going to be a fascinating book (I have to pick one up...! I know, for instance, that Books on Beechwood has 3 on order...). If you're in Montreal, go to the launch at Nicholas Hoare on Greene Ave. this week (see the end of the Gazette article for info).

I also think Claire makes an excellent point about women's stories not being told. One great source is We walked very warily: A history of women at McGill, which a very good friend gave me as a graduation gift. But then, see, even as I was looking that book up online just now, it's not even listed in Amazon.ca..... I can't even find a cover image. So, that's it. I'm linking to LibraryThing... and I'm not happy about it.