After Birth

Name: After Birth
Brand: Harper Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Elisa Albert
ISBN: 9780063398900

Author: Elisa Albert

Narrator: Cindy Kay

Unabridged: 6 hr 9 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Mariner Books

Published: 05/28/2024

Categories: Fiction, Women, Literary Fiction, Animals

Synopsis

A widely acclaimed young writer’s fierce novel, in which childbirth and new motherhood are as high stakes a proving ground as any combat zoneA year has passed since Ari gave birth to Walker, though it went so badly awry she has trouble calling it “birth” and still she can't locate herself in her altered universe. Amid the strange, disjointed rhythms of her days and nights and another impending winter in upstate New York, Ari is a tree without roots, struggling to keep her branches aloft.When Mina, a one-time cult musician — older, self-contained, alone, and nine-months pregnant —moves to town, Ari sees the possibility of a new friend, despite her unfortunate habit of generally mistrusting women. Soon they become comrades-in-arms, and the previously hostile terrain seems almost navigable.With piercing insight, purifying anger, and outrageous humor, Elisa Albert issues a wake-up call to a culture that turns its new mothers into exiles, and expects them to act like natives. Like Lionel Shriver’s We Need to Talk About Kevin and Anne Enright’s The Gathering, this is a daring and resonant novel from one of our most visceral writers.

About Elisa Albert

ELISA ALBERT, author of The Book of Dahlia and a collection of short stories, has written for NPR, Tin House, Commentary,Salon, and the Rumpus. She grew up in Los Angeles and now lives in upstate New York with her family.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Morgan on February 22, 2015

This woman is THE WORST. I was excited to read this book because it's marketed as a feminist tale of post-partum depression, which I really struggled with, but this woman is so anti-feminist it's not even funny. She hates on every single woman she encounters. She's that militant AP mom who hates on......more

Goodreads review by zan on February 28, 2015

Five stars for honesty! Five stars for real female friendships. Five stars for telling it like it is and making me cringe and feel a little yelled at but in the way you want someone to yell because it will make them feel better. This book felt like a primal scream, one I really needed to hear after......more

Goodreads review by Shawna on February 25, 2015

For anyone who has ever wanted to smack those people who say "enjoy every minute!" when you are struggling to get your newborn to sleep/eat/stop crying for 5 minutes...this is a must read. This book is such an emotional, deep, dark, funny, intense look at those blurry days/weeks/months after having y......more

Goodreads review by Jessi on March 26, 2015

I didn't always like this book but I did like a lot of the points it had to make. I think Ari, our narrator, will rub some readers the wrong way. Many may be offended by her version of the first year of motherhood. But I think many more will hear an echo of their own experience and understand where......more

Goodreads review by Antonia on March 21, 2015

Why so angry, Elisa Albert? I detest stories in which women slash other women to the bone because it's clever and for the first 50 pages, I felt stuck in a particularly sharp episode of The Real Housewives of Elisa Albert, but without the hot shoes and expensive blowout. "After Birth" is ripe with c......more