"Terrifying and beautiful. I couldn't put The Birthing House down." - Sara Gran, author of Come Closer
When thirty-somethings Conrad and Joanna Harrison choose to start a new life in a former turn-of-the-century birthing house in a small Wisconsin town, their marriage is healing but fragile, vulnerable to private yearnings and darker histories. They have no idea the secrets they are keeping from one another will induce a series of hauntings.
An infant wailing from the depths at night. Carpet tearing open to reveal floors stained by an ancient blood lust. A darkly clad woman who visits Conrad with increasingly bold demands...and who bears a striking resemblance to his wife.
For no sooner are Conrad and Jo learning to make amends than Jo is called away to train out of state for a new job. But earning their daily bread is not her chief concern. Since moving into their new home, Jo has sensed unsettling changes in her husband, and she’s carrying a secret of her own. One that’s due to arrive in about nine months.
Alone in the house for six weeks, assailed by visions he cannot comprehend, Conrad becomes obsessed with the girl next door, Nadia Grum, a pregnant teen who claims to be a victim of the evil living under his roof. As Conrad and Nadia begin to spend one hot summer night after another in the birthing house, revealing their secrets, they unlock a common need to begin again.
But is it an affair of the heart, or something more sinister? Is Nadia just another confused and frightened woman running from her abusive ex-boyfriend, or is something in the house calling her back every time she tries to run away?
Torn between two expecting women, Conrad must confront his own dark history and paternal fears before the house gives birth to a new monster and destroys his last chance to make a family.
The Birthing House is a tale of one man’s descent into madness and an unflinching exploration of the everyday domestic horrors of dual-career marriage, infidelity, imminent parenthood, and the darkest recesses of human desire, where dreams and nightmares share the same marital bed.