The Nursery By Szilvia Molnar

Publisher: One World Publications

Publication Date: 4th May 2023

I’m like a broken record with this but any book about a struggling new mother is like catnip to me. The Nursery tells the story of an unnamed narrator, a translator living in New York with her husband and the baby daughter she has just given birth to at the start of the novel. The baby is referred to as Button throughout the novel.

The narrator knows that she’s not the first woman to give birth but she can’t quite believe that this is what women do. She knew who she was as a successful translator and wife but now that she is a mother she feels like she is losing herself.

In the claustrophobic confines of her apartment she spends those first raw and brutal days post-birth just simply trying to survive. Losing track of time and the passing of days and nights in the exhausting sleepless landscape of new motherhood. Her body no longer feels like her own and she battles with dark thoughts about hurting her tiny fragile daughter. Her husband for his part seems largely unaffected by the arrival of the child and continues to work and sleep. He does worry that the narrator hasn’t left the apartment and gently tries to float the idea now and again.

The only punctuation in her day is the visit she gets from her elderly ailing upstairs neighbour Peter who initially comes down to complain about the noise the baby is making. Peter has lost his wife and like our narrator is pretty much trapped in the apartment block by his bad health. The narrators husband finds the visits odd but she seems to use them to navigate time and her own thoughts.

What I loved about this book was the unflinching descriptions of post-birth pain and the changes in a woman’s body. The narrator reminisces back to her pre-pregnancy days and her time being pregnant. Times when she had more of a hold on her body, mind and identity. After giving birth there are stitches and pain and milk and unusual smells and blood and exhaustion and everything she is entirely unprepared for.

The almost dream like quality of the narrative as the book progresses mirrors the sleepless struggle of the narrator as she slowly loses her grip on time and place.

I am always very much here for a book that deals with the early days of motherhood so accurately and honestly. I really enjoyed this one.

Thank you to One World Publications for my review copy.

See you all soon.

Amanda @bookishchat

Chrysalis By Anna Metcalfe – A Review

Publisher: Granta

Publication Date: 4th May 2023

Once you’ve known her, it’s hard to go back to a time before’

The premise of Chrysalis by Anna Metcalfe really interested me, a story about a woman told from the perspective of three people in her life who each are fascinated observers.

Firstly Elliott, a man in the woman’s gym who sees a bold and forthright woman come in one day and turn his head. He watches her physical transformation from a step removed but with ever increasing fascination. When they eventually do connect she utterly transfixes him.

The narrative then switches to the woman’s mother Bella, she tells us about the woman’s childhood. How she brought her up as a single mother in a quite isolated environment and found it hard to connect with her. Her daughter had issues with physical tremors that no doctor seemed to be able to get to the bottom of and only really abated when the girls much loved school teacher gave her a meditation cassette. We also get to hear about their quite fractured relationship as the girl grows into a woman and the mother tries to find ways to connect with her daughter.

Lastly we hear from the woman’s colleague. A woman who rescued her and took her in when she was having a hard time. The colleague, Susie, finds herself desperately hoping that the woman won’t ever leave.

In fact all three people wish she wouldn’t leave their lives. Unfortunately that is exactly what she does. Following a traumatic relationship the woman relies heavily on transforming herself, not only becoming physically stronger but mentally stronger too by using meditation and opting for an isolated life. She uses these methods to connect with an ever growing social media following, advocating cutting people out of your life, severing familial ties and living a still and quiet existence.

The three people around her have to watch from afar and only be tuned into her life through her social media channels.

This woman was so fascinating to me. I didnt know whether I understood her or even liked her but I enjoyed the challenge of trying to figure her out. Anna Metcalfe’s writing is fresh and contemporary, including aspects of modern life we’re all becoming familiar with. The effects of viewing other peoples lives through social media and becoming influenced by other peoples actions and values.

I loved viewing this fascinating woman through the eyes of those around her. Three people who orbit her and are in awe, wanting to get closer whilst she moves further away. A woman who wants to focus on herself and improving her life at the expense of distancing those invested people around her.

I loved it.

Thank you George Stamp and Granta for my review copy.

See you all soon.

Amanda @bookishchat. Xx

Prize Women By Caroline Lea – A Review

Publisher: Michael Joseph

Publication Date: 27th April 2023

If there’s a new Caroline Lea book out you best believe I’m going to get myself a proof by hook or by crook (or by the lovely Caroline arranging for one to be sent! Thanks Caroline!).

Prize Women is set in 1930’s Toronto, Canada and opens with the crazy details of childless millionaire Charles Millar’s last will and testament. Charles is somewhat of a joker and stipulates in his will that he wants to offer a huge sum of money to the woman who has the most babies spanning the ten year period from 1926 to 1936. This is known thereafter as The Great Stork Derby.

Two women who find themselves in the running for the money are Lily and Mae. These women are both very different yet find themselves unlikely friends. Lily is an Italian immigrant who escapes her violent, drunk husband Tony when an earthquake hits Chatsworth. Lily is forced to flee with her young son Matteo in tow, leaving Tony behind for dead. Lily ends up in Toronto and is taken on as Mae’s nanny of sorts. Mae is married to an affluent man and has five children she can barely cope with looking after. She is downtrodden and anxious and despite loving her children can’t bear the thought of always being pregnant.

At the time contraception was not readily available and women basically had to deal with the posibility of getting pregnant and just deal with it. Lily rescues Mae from her life of struggling with the children and they form a very close bond.

We then follow the women through the years, with their various pregnancies and births. Both women not having an easy ride. But when they both come up against tragedy and extremely tough issues at a time that Wall Street has crashed and the Great Depression has hit, both find themselves entering into The Great Stork Derby. But just how much will their strong and seemingly unshakable bond be tested by their desperate circumstances….

What I love about Caroline is that she writes women at certain points in history with such perception and empathy. In all her novels she perfectly depicts how women are treated and the various struggles they face in their lives. I always find I learn so much reading Caroline’s fiction and can become so immersed in her storytelling. Her novels are thoroughly researched and are written so beautifully that you just get swept away.

Prize women talks about a time when women didn’t have agency over their own bodies. A time when contraception just wasn’t considered regardless of women’s wants and needs. It also deals beautifully with a topic that is close to my heart, the struggles of motherhood. There are so many layers and subjects covered in this book, not least poverty, prejudice, violence, baby loss, marriage and friendship. It would make such a great Bookclub read with its potential to spark some interesting conversations.

I am always thrilled to get to the end of a book and find out that it was based on real events which Prize Women is. Charles Millar did indeed offer up his fortune to the woman who bore the most children…..now you’ll have to get on Wikipedia and find out what actually happened!

Another stunning and triumphant book from Caroline. Loved it! 5 easy stars!

Thank you to Michael Joseph for my proof copy.

See you all soon.

Amanda xx Bookishchat