Book 23: "Singer from the Sea" by Sheri S. Tepper

[kittiwake]

Genevieve is an aristocrat on a planet where aristocratic women marry later and die early, usually in childbirth or while nursing a baby, although common women often live to eighty. Over the course of the book, she rebels against this fate and together with the commoner she loves manages to piece together the terrible truth, and discovers the role she is destined to play in saving the planet.

I never really warmed to Genevieve and didn't think her words and actions always rang true. It was interesting but I didn't like the ending and overall I preferred "Grass" by the same author.