The Afterpains, Anna Julia Stainsby
The Afterpains, Anna Julia Stainsby
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The Afterpains

Author: Anna Julia Stainsby

Narrator: Hailey Gillis, Dianne Aguilar, Rebecca Auerbach, Diana Pou

Unabridged: 8 hr 24 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 03/05/2024


Synopsis

LONGLISTED FOR THE TORONTO BOOK AWARDS
“Powerful and unrelenting prose.... I loved this book.” —Reema Patel, author of Such Big Dreams

Gorgeous and compelling, The Afterpains is a heartbreaking portrait of two families trying to cope with grief, isolation, and living far from one's homeland—told in the voices of four distinct narrators.

Nearly twenty years after the death of her infant daughter, Rosy is still reeling from all that she's lost. Desperate to repair the connections to the family she does have—her husband, Desmond, and her eighteen-year-old son, Eddie—she's determined to lay her grief to rest by the twentieth anniversary of her daughter’s death.

At the same time, Isaura dreads what may be coming for her teenage daughter, Mivi. For centuries in her homeland of Honduras, the young women in Isaura's family have been subjected to a curse of teenage motherhood and the untimely death of the men they loved. But even after moving thousands of miles away from Pespire to Toronto, Isaura fears that her daughter will not be spared.

Soon, Rosy and Isaura, essentially strangers, become connected in a way neither of them could predict. As they try to look to their future and their children’s, they struggle to put the past behind them—all while Eddie and Mivi contend with the weight of their mothers’ pain and guilt.

Tender and compassionate, The Afterpains is a moving debut novel on motherhood, grief, identity, and belonging.

About The Author

ANNA JULIA STAINSBY is a Honduran-Canadian writer from Toronto. The Afterpains is her first novel.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Amy on February 08, 2024

This book has broken and healed my heart!! AJS captures the raw feelings of grief, desire, and isolation in such a compelling way. I had to put the book down multiple times to let the stories sit with me. The characters are so real and complex. I loved them all but reading through Mivi’s point of vi......more

Goodreads review by Sindi on February 09, 2025

This book is so under hyped and needs way more attention. The Afterpains is a powerful and emotional story of two families and their respective and intertwined struggles with grief, motherhood, identity, and family dynamics. The audiobook was phenomenal and each of the voice actors narrated perfectly......more

Goodreads review by Cynthia on March 08, 2024

The Afterpains is a beautiful portrait of loss and grief, and those emotions weren’t explored solely through death, although that is an integral part of the story. Anna Julia Stainsby created painfully realistic characters dealing with situations few of us could even slightly comprehend. Her use of......more

Goodreads review by Hana on March 19, 2024

A beautiful debut novel that tells the story of two families, grief, motherhood and the stories that bring us together. Anna writes her characters with such care that they become fully fleshed out people that I could imagine interacting either. Isaura and Mivi’s stories were particularly powerful an......more

Goodreads review by Rachael on August 20, 2024

What a fantastic debut for Anna Julia Stainsby! The writing in this novel is beautiful and devastating all at once. The way she carefully navigates the difficult subject matter is sensitive but still engaging. I loved the subtle Toronto references and how real the characters felt. I thought the mult......more


Quotes

Praise for The Afterpains:
“Brimming with powerful and unrelenting prose, The Afterpains deftly plunges us into the pressure-cooker of motherhood, showing us worlds of grief and isolation, as well as the slivers of hope that bleed through in the darkest of moments. I loved this book.”
Reema Patel, author of Such Big Dreams

“A potent, glimmering debut. Anna Julia Stainsby’s prose is luscious and wise, and I read The Afterpains with my heart in my throat.” 
—Harriet Alida Lye, author of Let It Destroy You and Natural Killer

"The Afterpains is a novel that is both emotionally precise and ripe with compassion. Page after page, Anna Julia Stainsby urges us to sit with the patient work of building trust after loss and to imagine the healing we can find in one another."
Janika Oza, author of A History of Burning

“Like a small pebble thrown into a pond, tiny events can leave reverberating effects. In The Afterpains, Anna Julia Stainsby takes you on a contemplative journey of how grief felt through single but significant events can echo through generations. This debut novel is a delicate and heartbreaking portrait of motherhood and all of the difficult and forced moments and choices some mothers must endure, but also how hope in healing comes with patience, love, compassion and chosen family.”
Jamie Chai Yun Liew, author of Dandelion

“Is motherhood a curse or a blessing? In this beautifully perceptive novel, Anna Julia Stainsby proves that it can be both. Four narrators, all with unflinching eyes, tell the story of the bonds that join them, and the secrets that keep them apart.”
—Elizabeth Renzetti, author of Shrewed

"The Afterpains is an extraordinary depiction of the transformative nature of motherhood. With skillful emotional accuracy, Stainsby captures the inherent anxiety and immovable devotion of the role, reminding us of what binds us together, and what keeps us moving through life's most difficult moments. A heartbreakingly beautiful meditation on grief and love, this is a gorgeous and deeply moving book." 
Stacey May Fowles, editor of Good Mom on Paper