Hold my hand

Inspired by real events, this emotional and deeply touching novel tells the story of a black nurse in the American South who tries to seek justice for her patients. In 1973, Alabama, newly graduated nurse Sybil Townsend has big plans and dreams of changing the world for the better. Working at a birth control clinic, she aims to help women take control of their bodies and lives. Sybil visits her first patients, Erica and India, only to discover with horror that they are children, aged eleven and thirteen. They have never even kissed a boy, but being black and poor, they are seen by white social workers as ready to reproduce and in need of preventive measures. Sybil decides to fight against this injustice, and it seems she succeeds. She profoundly changes the lives of the girls, their father, and grandmother, but tragedy still strikes them. Decades later, the respected Dr. Sybil Townsend is ready to retire, find peace, and leave the past behind. However, there are people and stories that refuse to be forgotten. That cannot be forgotten.