Wentworth as a maid, a situation in which Moth is regularly abused by her perverse guardian. Struggling to make ends meet, Moth’s mother sells her daughter to Mrs. Moth is 12 years old and living with her mother, a “slum-house mystic” who loots fire-gutted properties. In a powerful novel that recalls the evocative fiction Anita Shreve, Annie Proulx, and Joanne Harris, Ami McKay brings to light the story of early, forward-thinking social warriors, creating a narrative that readers will find inspiring, poignant, adventure-filled, and utterly unforgettable.McKay’s harsh yet hopeful second novel (after The Birth House) explores how women’s lives were shaped by their socioeconomic status in the bleak tenements of 1870s lower Manhattan. But there's a high price to pay for freedom, and no one knows that better than a girl from Chrystie Street. Ignored by society and unprotected by the law, Moth dreams of independence. 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. Sadie, a female physician struggling against the powerful forces of injustice.

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. 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.

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. 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.

McKay, whose debut novel The Birth House made headlines around the world, returns with a resonant tale inspired by her own great-great-grandmother's experiences as a pioneer of women's medicine in nineteenth-century New York. From #1 international bestselling author Ami McKay comes The Virgin Cure, the story of a young girl abandoned and forced to fend for herself in the poverty and treachery of post-Civil War New York City.

The Virgin Cure by Ami McKay