Motherhood

‘Brilliant’ Jenni Murray ’Liberating, intoxicating’ Zoe Williams ‘Why, after decades of social progress, is motherhood still so much harder than it needs to be?’ Before they become mothers, women are repeatedly reminded that their biological clock is ticking. Once pregnant, a woman’s body becomes public property: she is patronised, panicked, and forbidden from exercising her autonomy. In labour, women’s wishes are overridden, resulting in potentially life-changing injuries and trauma. When the baby comes home, women begin a life of pay cuts, lost job opportunities, heavier housework, unequal emotional loads, and judgement from all sides. State support and family networks have fallen away, and mothers are censured for every ‘choice’ they make – if they are given real choices at all. In this searing and vital book, Eliane Glaser asks why mothers are idealised, yet treated so poorly; why campaigns for mothers have become so unfashionable; and what we need to do to shift the needle and improve the business of child-rearing for everyone.

‘Brilliant’ Jenni Murray ’Liberating, intoxicating’ Zoe Williams ‘Why, after decades of social progress, is motherhood still so much harder than it needs to be?’ Before they become mothers, women are repeatedly reminded that their biological clock is ticking. Once pregnant, a woman’s body becomes public property: she is patronised, panicked, and forbidden from exercising her autonomy. In labour, women’s wishes are overridden, resulting in potentially life-changing injuries and trauma. When the baby comes home, women begin a life of pay cuts, lost job opportunities, heavier housework, unequal emotional loads, and judgement from all sides. State support and family networks have fallen away, and mothers are censured for every ‘choice’ they make – if they are given real choices at all. In this searing and vital book, Eliane Glaser asks why mothers are idealised, yet treated so poorly; why campaigns for mothers have become so unfashionable; and what we need to do to shift the needle and improve the business of child-rearing for everyone.

'A response - finally - to the new norms of femininity' Rachel Cusk Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti's narrator considers, with the same urgency, whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, body, family, friends, mysticism and chance, she struggles to make a moral and meaningful choice. In a compellingly direct mode that straddles the forms of the novel and the essay, Motherhood raises radical and essential questions about womanhood, parenthood, and how - and for whom - to live. 'Likely to become the defining literary work on the subject' Guardian 'Courageous, necessary, visionary' Elif Batuman 'Quietly affecting... As concerned with art as it is with mothering' Sally Rooney 'Groundbreaking in its fluidity' Spectator ** A Daily Telegraph , Financial Times , Irish Times , Refinery29 , TLS and The White Review Book of the Year **

'A response - finally - to the new norms of femininity' Rachel Cusk Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti's narrator considers, with the same urgency, whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, body, family, friends, mysticism and chance, she struggles to make a moral and meaningful choice. In a compellingly direct mode that straddles the forms of the novel and the essay, Motherhood raises radical and essential questions about womanhood, parenthood, and how - and for whom - to live. 'Likely to become the defining literary work on the subject' Guardian 'Courageous, necessary, visionary' Elif Batuman 'Quietly affecting... As concerned with art as it is with mothering' Sally Rooney 'Groundbreaking in its fluidity' Spectator ** A Daily Telegraph , Financial Times , Irish Times , Refinery29 , TLS and The White Review Book of the Year **

From the author of How Should a Person Be? ("one of the most talked-about books of the year"-- Time Magazine ) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti's intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how--and for whom--to live.

From the author of How Should a Person Be? ("one of the most talked-about books of the year"-- Time Magazine ) and the New York Times Bestseller Women in Clothes comes a daring novel about whether to have children. In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and what is lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim and made How Should A Person Be? required reading for a generation. In her late thirties, when her friends are asking when they will become mothers, the narrator of Heti's intimate and urgent novel considers whether she will do so at all. In a narrative spanning several years, casting among the influence of her peers, partner, and her duties to her forbearers, she struggles to make a wise and moral choice. After seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance, she discovers her answer much closer to home. Motherhood is a courageous, keenly felt, and starkly original novel that will surely spark lively conversations about womanhood, parenthood, and about how--and for whom--to live.

Motherhood is the true hero's journey-which is to say that it can be as harrowing as it is joyful, and enlightening as it is exhausting. For Jungian psychoanalyst Lisa Marchiano, this journey is not just an adventure of diaper bags and parent-teacher conferences, but one of intense self-discovery. In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairytales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. After all, this kind of storytelling has always been one of the most important conduits of humanity's collective wisdom-and Marchiano provides each tale alongside keen insights into the timeless archetypes they represent. Divided into three major segments similar to the stages of a hero's initiatory journey, (Descent, Sojourn, and Return), Motherhood charts how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are all parts of an odyssey to which every mother receives an invitation. Here Marchiano emphasizes that when you take up that invitation, it will lead to an adventure into the wild frontier of your own soul. And once you return from this inner journey, you'll possess the treasured knowledge need to clarify your values, embrace your disowned parts, and claim the mantle of motherhood in the full bloom of your empowerment.

Motherhood is the true hero's journey-which is to say that it can be as harrowing as it is joyful, and enlightening as it is exhausting. For Jungian psychoanalyst Lisa Marchiano, this journey is not just an adventure of diaper bags and parent-teacher conferences, but one of intense self-discovery. In Motherhood, Marchiano draws from a deep well of Jungian analysis and symbolic research to present a collection of fairytales, myths, and fables that evoke the spiritual arc of raising a child from infancy through adulthood. After all, this kind of storytelling has always been one of the most important conduits of humanity's collective wisdom-and Marchiano provides each tale alongside keen insights into the timeless archetypes they represent. Divided into three major segments similar to the stages of a hero's initiatory journey, (Descent, Sojourn, and Return), Motherhood charts how events like pregnancy, the calamities of childhood, and the empty-nest experience are all parts of an odyssey to which every mother receives an invitation. Here Marchiano emphasizes that when you take up that invitation, it will lead to an adventure into the wild frontier of your own soul. And once you return from this inner journey, you'll possess the treasured knowledge need to clarify your values, embrace your disowned parts, and claim the mantle of motherhood in the full bloom of your empowerment.