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Chapter Overview
Chapter 1: AudiobookHub Recommendation
Chapter 2: A corpse in the ice and a winter holding its breath
Chapter 3: Courts, confrontations, and holding the peace at home
Chapter 4: How Martha chose her path: a hanging and a marriage
Chapter 5: The long winter and an obstinate court
Chapter 6: Love in winter: the first night Martha fully says yes
Chapter 7: Poor medicine, fine midwifery, and truth as tonic
Chapter 8: Learning her craft: Martha’s apprenticeship
Chapter 9: A mother’s ledger and the court’s chill response
Chapter 10: The season of grief
Chapter 11: Thaw, grace, and who truly did the hanging
Chapter 12: Arriving in Hallowell and claiming a home
Chapter 13: Kits in the grass; the river sings again
Description
What do you do when the river freezes, the courts are compromised, and men with power call their violence righteousness? You keep your head, put your hands to the work, and write everything down. In The Frozen River, we follow Martha Ballard: midwife, apothecary, journal keeper, and a fierce witness to the quiet lives of women in post-Revolution Maine. It’s late 1789. A body is cut from the Kennebec River ice. The pastor’s wife, Rebecca Foster, claims Judge Joseph North and Captain Joshua Burgess raped her. The court hedges, the town divides, and Martha—who saw Rebecca’s injuries and believes her—pushes for a truth most men would rather ignore. She delivers babies, buries the dead, confronts fools, and squares up against a winter that feels like it will never end. As the river groans, the tavern fills, and rumors spread, Martha’s ledger becomes the spine of the town’s memory. The story carries us through a blizzard, a doomed trial, a castration in self-defense, and the delicate mercy of saving a newborn no mother can bear to claim. It’s about marriage that holds, children lost and cherished, and a community learning what justice looks like when it’s women who keep the books. Ariel Lawhon’s historical novel reads like a living diary—tense, tender, and exact—reminding us that quiet, persistent courage can hold its own against the cold.
Who Should Listen
- Listeners who love historical fiction grounded in real women’s lives
- Fans of courtroom drama woven with intimate domestic detail
- Anyone drawn to stories of midwifery, community, and moral courage
- Readers who appreciate slow-burn tension with a vivid sense of place
- Book clubs ready to discuss justice, consent, and the power of keeping a diary