CHILDREN OF NAZARETH

The story of six intrepid Kentucky nuns who traveled to India—Bihar— in 1947, one of the most remote and desperate states in the midst of terrible violence. They set up a charity hospital and battled a cholera epidemic. Their story shines a light on a powerful group of unsung women. The author is the daughter of one of them.

In December 1945, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth were running an infirmary in Louisville, Kentucky, when they met two Jesuit priests on their way to the northern region of Bihar, India—what would become one of the bloodiest regions of the Partition in 1947.

The priests sent word to the sister that they were overwhelmed and desperately needed help. In 1947, six sisters set off to go live around the world. They would fight bandits and epidemics. They would deal with culture clashes and sexism. They would have to be resourceful in a resource-scare environment, making IV fluid from a moonshine still and finding clever ways to deliver fresh water to their surgeon. Over time they built a 300-bed hospital, and then a nursing school in a country of 300 million had only 7000 trained nurses.

Children of Nazareth will be a sweeping story, set with the backdrop of war and history, about the six brave women who helped change part of the world.

The author, Jyoti Thottam, is an award-winning journalist has been taking trips to Mokama and Kentucky to conduct research on this book since 1997. She has an intimate connection to the subject because her mother moved to Mokama at the age of 15 to enroll in nursing school.

Jyoti Thottam is an award-winning American journalist with extensive experience writing about India. She spent 13 years as a writer and editor based in New Delhi. Her work has also appeared in the New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street Journal and other publications.She has made frequent broadcast appearances as an expert on India. Jyoti is an adjunct professor of journalism at City University of New York Graduate School of Journalism and co-author of a play about an Indian immigrant family, Interrogations, that has been staged in cities across the U.S. She graduated from Yale and received a master’s degree in international affairs from Columbia.Born in New Delhi, India, Jyoti moved to the United States with her family at the age of 3. She now lives in Brooklyn with her husband and two young daughters.