The Long Answer is a triumph of human portraiture,as subtle as it is seething'Sunday Times'There were other women,how many other women,who had felt and wanted what I'd felt and wanted,and felt and wanted differently too. Anywhere I've been and will go next,there they will be.'Twelve weeks pregnant for the first time,Anna speaks to her sister on the other side of the country and learns she has just miscarried her second child. As this loss strains their bond,and complications with Anna's own pregnancy emerge,her tenuous steps towards motherhood are shadowed and illuminated by the women she meets along the way,whose stories of the babies they have had,or longed for,or lost,crowd in.The Long Answer is a stunning novel of secrets kept and secrets shared. Deeply empathetic and hugely absorbing,it unravels the intimate dynamics of female friendship,sisterhood,motherhood and grief,and the ways in which women are bound together and pulled apart by their shared and contrasting experiences of pregnancy,abortion,miscarriage and infertility.
MEDIA REVIEWS
Publisher: Profile Books LtdISBN: 9781800814738Number of pages: 304Weight: 240 gDimensions: 198 x 130 x 28 mmEdition: Main
MEDIA REVIEWS
A breathtaking roundup of the many ways that women carry and lose babies and pregnancies,so many possible and impossible choices to be made,so many capitulations and coercions to be endured. All the narratives in the novel make clear that the only thing that makes any of it bearable is the agency each woman can claim...These stories are crucial.A brilliant debut,both coolly empathetic and searingly personal,a powerful bridge between fiction's two current modes. Anna Hogeland writes beautifully,with unwavering passion and insight,about the complexities of motherhood and female relationships.The Long Answer is truly brilliant. Anna Hogeland writes generously and astutely about motherhood,grief,fertility,and the relationship dynamics between mothers and daughters,sisters and friends,articulating with aching clarity the irresolution of loss,and the quiet power of love. I'm so happy that this beautiful book exists.An introspective,psychologically astute,and engaging debut... a heart-rending tale that blurs the line between fiction and reality...A startling meditation on grief and family and betrayal and the stories we tell about ourselves.I loved this debut novel by Anna Hogeland about motherhood - so coolly and intricately constructed,so quietly intimate,and devastating at its heart.The Long Answer is a triumph of human portraiture,as subtle as it is seethingIn concentric circles of stories told and stories secreted away,The Long Answer is about women making life and losing life and about fertility itself - the promise and the more complicated truth. This beautiful novel tugs at friendship,marriage,family and women in moments of heartbreaking and miraculous transformation.A brilliantly constructed novel about women,and about the power of love in the heart of one woman through whom these female souls are elucidated,their passions,their terrible losses,and their bravery. These characters breathe on the page,and their stories are moving and involving. Anna Hogeland is a wonderfully talented writer.A subtle,honest,engaging novel about female friendships,sibling relationships and the joys and costs of motherhoodIn her gorgeous debut,The Long Answer,Anna Hogeland expertly explores issues of fertility,pregnancy,childbirth,and the uncertainty and trauma that too often accompany these major events...readers will feel heard and seen.A compelling,often-heartbreaking tale of belonging,loss,and rebirth. Looking beyond pregnancy's physical transformations,Hogeland explores what it means to feel parental,to choose a life bigger than your own,or to lose a precious gift...a heartfelt,finely wrought journey for fans of Suzanne Finnamore,Erica Jong,and Marian Keyes.Anna Hogeland's The Long Answer is the novel that millions of parents,mothers in particular,have been waiting for. It breaks the silence that has prevailed for so long around pregnancy and its discontents,the anguish of losing a pregnancy,the wrenching decision to end one,the rage and envy that so many woman feel around the process of procreation. I've never read a book that speaks so bravely,and eloquently,about the burdens that women carry. Hogeland brings moments of darkness into the light. Astonishing. A masterpiece.Told with tenderness and care,one woman's journey manages to encapsulate a whole chorus of voices sharing their private heartbreaks. The Long Answer is a subtle and deeply moving novel; I loved it.ProvocativeHogeland invites us to feel things without prodding us hard to amplify the pain...In The Long Answer each story is totally absorbing and vivid. Quite a feat!
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