Ami McKay was born and raised in rural Indiana. After an undergraduate degree in music education and graduate studies in musicology at Indiana State University, she moved to Chicago to teach music at an inner city high school for the arts. In her off hours she would write, filling notebooks and journals with short stories and ideas for novels.
 
In 2000, McKay moved to Scots Bay, Nova Scotia (for the love of a good Canadian man). Waiting for her residency papers to be processed gave her plenty of time to embrace the writing life. After much prodding from her partner, she started sending her writing out into the world. She began by writing thank-you notes to people she didn't know, in an effort to start small. This, her first attempt at sharing her writing, led to an appearance on The Oprah Winfrey Show.
 
Soon McKay took bigger steps toward living the writing life. A summer workshop called "Writing for Radio" opened new doors and the opportunity to combine her love of music and sound with her passion for writing. This experience led to writing and producing documentaries for CBC Radio as well as other freelance assignments. McKay's work has since aired on CBC Radio's Maritime Magazine, This Morning, Outfront and The Sunday Edition. Her documentary Daughter of Family G won an Excellence in Journalism Medallion at the 2003 Atlantic Journalism Awards.
 
Also in 2003, an apprenticeship in the Writers' Federation of Nova Scotia's mentorship program gave Ami McKay the excuse she needed to complete a first draft of The Birth House, her debut novel. Published as a selection of Knopf Canada's prestigious New Face of Fiction program, The Birth House went on to be a #1 bestseller in Canada, the winner of three CBA Libris Awards, nominated for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and a book club favourite around the world. Her second novel, The Virgin Cure, is inspired by the life of her great-great-grandmother Dr. Sarah Fonda Mackintosh, a female physician in nineteenth-century New York.

1. Miss Everett could be seen as doing work that "saves" girls, whether from poverty or from working the streets, and she is an established member of New York society. What do you think of this argument, considering the few options for young girls like Moth?

2. What makes Moth such a survivor? Is she better or worse off without her mother?

3. The young Moth spends a lot of time fantasizing about the lives of the wealthy and how her life could have been different. Do Moth's early experiences with the Wentworths dispel some of those fantasies, or shore them up?

4. Moth's mother tells Mrs. Wentworth that Moth's name is "Miss Fenwick." Later, Moth chooses to use the name "Ada" while she's in the brothel. How do these and other names change the way Moth sees herself? How does calling herself "Ada" help her to cope?

5. How does Ami McKay use mystery and hidden secrets in The Virgin Cure? For instance, consider the various characters who live secret lives, or the importance of fortune-telling, or the role of the old Stuyvesant pear tree in the lives of early immigrants.

6. Most of the girls in Miss Everett's house believe their lives can only improve if they win the continued affection of one of her rich clients. Dr. Sadie ensures that this doesn't happen for Moth by taking her to visit Katherine Tully. Why do you think Miss Everett lets Moth go along with the doctor for the day?

7. What sorts of sacrifices does Dr. Sadie have to make in her work and her life?

8. Discuss the title of this novel and the different ways it relates to the story within its pages. Discuss the devastating myth of the "virgin cure" - not only how it took hold in the New York of this novel, but how it continues today in parts of our world.

9. What character in this novel intrigues you the most, and why?

10. Throughout the novel, McKay uses elements like Dr. Sadie's diary, margin notes and newspaper ads to convey information, whether about her characters or more generally about the New York of the day. Talk about the effect these parts of the narrative had on your reading, and your experience of Moth's world.

11. Reread the Evening Star article that appears just before the novel's epilogue - a report on the debut of the Circassian Beauty at Dink's Museum. Compare the exotic story about her past with what really happened to Moth.

12. At the end of the novel Moth lives in a home on Gramercy Park and seems to have reached her life-long goal - yet she's only nineteen. What do you think the future holds for Moth?