‘There is joy, and there is rage’: the new generation of novelists writing about motherhood

From the shock and awe of labour to domestic isolation, a wave of recent novels captures the transformative nature of being a motherThey say nothing prepares you. Before having my baby, I approached the literature of motherhood as though I were about to sit an exam. If my studies tempered the shock of birth and early parenthood, then I didn’t notice. The sheer physical and emotive force of the experience left me profoundly shaken. Words felt insufficient. And yet I kept reading – everything I could get my hands on. I wanted answers. I wanted to feel recognised. I wanted this untranslatable experience to be translated into language. Most of all, I think, I wanted restitution for all the maternal stories that had been left untold by centuries of silencing and minimising, not just for myself, but for all of us.Books about motherhood come in waves: the recent spate only the latest in a long line of literary endeavours. In the 1950s there was Shirley Jackson’s Life Among the Savages. The 1960s wave saw Margaret Drabble’s The Millstone and Doris Lessing’s The Golden Notebook, alongside Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique; the 1970s The Women’s Room by Marilyn French, Adrienne Rich’s Of Woman Born, and In Search of Our Mothers’ Gardens by Alice Walker. In the 1980s writing about motherhood became even more transgressive and imaginative, with Beloved by Toni Morrison, The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood, and Nights at the Circus by Angela Carter. The early 2000s saw an... Continue reading at 'The Guardian'

[ The Guardian | 2024-01-20 11:00:01 UTC ]

Other news stories related to: "‘There is joy, and there is rage’: the new generation of novelists writing about motherhood"


Secrecy measures for Testaments revealed: Printers subjected to airport-style security

Margaret Atwood’s follow-up to The Handmaid’s Tale was subject of intense media scrutiny and—as its publisher and agent reveal—repeated hacking attacks and tight security processes. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-13 02:10:01 UTC ]
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Amazon Charts: The Testaments jumps the gun

Margaret Atwood's The Testaments (Vintage) tops the Amazon Charts: Most-Sold Fiction chart, a week ahead of its publication, with the Booker-shortlisted title the most pre-ordered book in the chart. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-11 04:09:14 UTC ]
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The Testaments smashes first day sales for Waterstones

Waterstones has celebrated its biggest first day of sales of 2019 with Margaret Atwood's Booker-shortlisted The Testaments (Chatto & Windus).  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-10 14:52:54 UTC ]
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On the Occasion of Margaret Atwood Day, Here Are Some Photos of Her Over the Years

Well, today is the day you’ve all been waiting for: Margaret Atwood’s hotly hyped, closely guarded, imperfectly embargoed, Booker-shortlisted The Testaments is on the bookstore shelves. For the superfans among you, we’ve collected a selection of photographs of Atwood below, from childhood to the... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-10 08:49:55 UTC ]
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Margaret Atwood discusses attempted cyber theft of The Testaments

Margaret Atwood has spoken of the “phoney emails” from cyber criminals attempting to access The Testaments (Chatto & Windus), at a global press conference in London. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-09 16:45:54 UTC ]
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Why It Matters That Amazon Shipped Margaret Atwood’s “The Testaments” a Week Early

Back in May, I signed an embargo agreement on behalf of my bookstore stating that I would “ensure that [The Testaments by Margaret Atwood] is stored in a monitored and locked, secured area and not placed on the selling floor prior to the on-sale date.” The idea behind such agreements is that... Continue reading at Electric Literature

[ Electric Literature | 2019-09-06 11:00:49 UTC ]
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Hackers targeted Curtis Brown for months in bid to get hold of The Testaments manuscript

Margaret Atwood’s literary agent Karolina Sutton of Curtis Brown has revealed how the agency was besieged by a “carefully orchestrated” campaign by cyber criminals attempting to obtain The Testaments manuscript which “carried on daily for months”.  Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-06 04:22:04 UTC ]
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The Problem(s) with Goodreads.

Earlier this week noted toaster-review site and server farm Amazon enraged booksellers across the country by breaking the sales embargo on Margaret Atwood’s The Testaments; yesterday, writing for Medium’s tech channel OneZero, Angela Lashbrook gave Amazon’s book club division, Goodreads, an... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-09-05 15:15:31 UTC ]
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Amazon apologises for 'technical error' following early US release of The Testaments

Amazon has apologised for the “technical error” which saw Margaret Atwood’s highly anticipated The Testaments distributed to some pre-order customers almost a week ahead of the publication date, breaking a worldwide embargo. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-05 14:05:02 UTC ]
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The Challenge of Margaret Atwood

With her new book—the much-awaited sequel to The Handmaid’s Tale—the Canadian author is leading a resistance. But it’s not the one you might think. Continue reading at The Atlantic

[ The Atlantic | 2019-09-05 11:00:00 UTC ]
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The Testaments to be adapted for Hulu TV show as audiobook actors revealed

Margaret Atwood’s much-anticipated new novel The Testaments will be turned into a TV show by Hulu and MGM, it has been revealed. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-04 06:45:47 UTC ]
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Indie Booksellers Incensed as Amazon Breaks 'Testaments' Embargo

A highly anticipated new book. A broken embargo. A cluster of angry booksellers. Penguin Random House has reacted to the fact that Amazon seems to have shipped copies of Margaret Atwood's 'The Testaments' in spite of the fact that it's on-sale-date is nearly a week away. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-04 04:00:00 UTC ]
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Booker Prize shortlist revealed

The Booker Prize shortlist has been revealed with Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie in the running for the £50,000 prize.   Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-09-03 10:45:33 UTC ]
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2019 Booker Shortlist Includes Atwood, Rushdie

Two former winners, Margaret Atwood and Salman Rushdie, both made the cut—a week before Atwood's book, 'The Testaments,' has even been published. Lucy Ellmann, Bernardine Evaristo, Chigozie Obioma, and Elif Shafak are also still in the race. Continue reading at Publishers Weekly

[ Publishers Weekly | 2019-09-03 04:00:00 UTC ]
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What we're reading August 2019

Lowborn by Kerry HudsonKerry Hudson is best known for her award-winning fiction. Her first book, Tony Hogan Bought Me An Ice-cream Float Before He Stole My Ma, won the Scottish First Book Award and earned her a place on the Granta Best of Young British Novelists list. Her latest book, Lowborn,... Continue reading at British Council global

[ British Council global | 2019-08-30 08:51:45 UTC ]
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Tales of The Handmaid’s Tale

How The Handmaid’s Tale keeps going, with Margaret Atwood, Ann Dowd, and novelists Louise Erdrich and Megan Hunter. Continue reading at Slate

[ Slate | 2019-08-29 21:00:04 UTC ]
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Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019 BookFest Gala: Atwood, Follett, Lunde, Shafak, Whitehead

Capping this year's BookFest events at Frankfurt will be an evening with Margaret Atwood, Maja Lunde, Elif Shafak, Colson Whitehead, and Ken Follett. The post Frankfurter Buchmesse 2019 BookFest Gala: Atwood, Follett, Lunde, Shafak, Whitehead appeared first on Publishing Perspectives. Continue reading at Publishing Perspectives

[ Publishing Perspectives | 2019-08-26 08:30:55 UTC ]
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The Matrix 4 is happening, and Aleksander Hemon and David Mitchell wrote the script.

Welcome back to the 90s. (And, I guess, the early 2000s.) As Variety reports, there is officially a fourth Matrix film in the works, with Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss back in the saddle as Neo and Trinity. Lana Wachowski will direct; she also wrote the script with novelists Aleksandar Hemon... Continue reading at Literrary Hub

[ Literrary Hub | 2019-08-20 20:44:00 UTC ]
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The Writer’s Alibi: My Terrible, Dreadful, Hope-the-FBI-Doesn’t-Look-at-This Search History

The internet search histories of novelists can be quite disturbing. Writer Kathleen Valenti shares the methodology behind web searches for her newest medical mystery. The post The Writer’s Alibi: My Terrible, Dreadful, Hope-the-FBI-Doesn’t-Look-at-This Search History by Kathleen Valenti appeared... Continue reading at Writer's Digest

[ Writer's Digest | 2019-08-20 14:00:45 UTC ]
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Obituary: Toni Morrison (18/02/1931-05/08/19)

Four publishing industry figures pay tribute to and share their recollections of acclaimed author and the first African-American Nobel Laureate, Toni Morrison. Continue reading at The Bookseller

[ The Bookseller | 2019-08-15 22:10:49 UTC ]
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