The Virgin Cure by Ami Mckay

The Virgin Cure by Ami Mckay

One summer night in Lower Manhattan in 1871, twelve-year-old Moth is pulled from her bed and sold as a servant to a finely dressed woman. Knowing that her mother is so close while she is locked away in servitude, Moth bides her time until she can escape, only to find her old home deserted and her mother gone without a trace. Moth must struggle to survive alone in the murky world of the Bowery, a wild and lawless enclave filled with thieves, beggars, sideshow freaks, and prostitutes.

She eventually meets Miss Everett, the proprietress of an Infant School, a brothel that caters to gentlemen who pay dearly for willing and clean companions--desirable young virgins like Moth. She also finds friendship with Dr. Sadie, a female physician struggling against the powerful forces of injustice. The doctor hopes to protect Moth from falling prey to a terrible myth known as the virgin cure--the tragic belief that deflowering a fresh maid can cleanse the blood and heal men afflicted with syphilis--which has destroyed the lives of other Bowery girls.

Ignored by society and unprotected by the law, Moth dreams of independence. But there's a high price to pay for freedom, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street.

Ami McKay was born and raised in rural Indiana. After an undergraduate degree in music education and graduate studies in musicology at Indiana State University, she moved to Chicago to teach music at an inner city high school for the arts. In her off hours she would write, filling notebooks and journals with short stories and ideas for novels.
In 2000, McKay moved to Scots Bay, Nova Scotia (for the love of a good Canadian man). Waiting for her residency papers to be processed gave her plenty of time to embrace the writing life. After much prodding from her partner, she started sending her writing out into the world. She began by writing thank-you notes to people she didn t know, in an effort to start small. This, her first attempt at sharing her writing, led to an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
Soon McKay took bigger steps toward living the writing life. A summer workshop called Writing for Radio opened new doors and the opportunity to combine her love of music and sound with her passion for writing. This experience led to writing and producing documentaries for CBC Radio as well as other freelance assignments. McKay s work has since aired on CBC Radio s Maritime Magazine, This Morning, Outfront and The Sunday Edition. Her documentary Daughter of Family G won an Excellence in Journalism Medallion at the 2003 Atlantic Journalism Awards.
Also in 2003, an apprenticeship in the Writers Federation of Nova Scotia s mentorship program gave Ami McKay the excuse she needed to complete a first draft of The Birth House, her debut novel. Published as a selection of Knopf Canada s prestigious New Face of Fiction program, The Birth House went on to be a #1 bestseller in Canada, the winner of three CBA Libris Awards, nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and a book club favourite around the world. Her second novel, The Virgin Cure, is inspired by the life of her great-great-grandmother Dr. Sarah Fonda Mackintosh, a female physician in nineteenth-century New York.