The heartbreaking and life-affirming debut novel which tells the truth about motherhood

What if the thing you most wanted feels nothing like you expected? A gripping, beautifully written and taboo-busting debut novel about motherhood and female identity."A richly textured novel showing what it means to be a woman with multiple sides... I was absolutely glued to it." - Emma GannonAfter five exhilarating years in New York, Stevie has a successful career and a glamorous social life. But what she most wants is a baby, an aspiration that feels impossible given that she is single, thirty-eight and living in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, far away from most of her family in England. Determined to become a mother, Stevie returns to London and has a baby on her own. When she gives birth to Ash, she finds motherhood painfully at odds with her former life and her expectations."Skilfully written by the fresh new voice, Kate Maxwell, this debut brilliantly explores the societal expectations put on women through the compelling Stevie, and gives us a worthy protagonist for this modern age." - Harper's BazaarShe begins to wonder if having a child was a mistake - and what she might be willing to do to escape. As she struggles with her new reality and what her future might hold, revelations from the past change everything she believed about family and love. A gripping, beautifully written and taboo-busting debut novel about motherhood and female identity, for readers of Anna Hope's EXPECTATION and Sheila Heti's MOTHERHOOD.