Valley of Grace

I enjoyed Valley of Grace by Marion Halligan which is set in Paris.  There are a number of characters with connections to each other.  The story is about babies, which took a while to discover.  The characters are pregnant, have babies, babies die, babies conceived then abandoned.  Fanny, the main character works in a antiquarian bookshop owned by a gay man.  He and his partner want babies, and Fanny has married her dream man and wants a baby.  The reader is absorbed by the characters and their view of life.  A rakish professor beds his young students who sometimes get pregnant.  The reader hopes the "nice" characters fulfill their dreams. 31/2/5