In just around 100 pages, Catalina Infante offers a quiet yet powerful alternative to the familiar narratives surrounding motherhood and mother-daughter relationships. The novel opens with Laura’s reflections on the joys and challenges of caring for her newborn, leading the reader to believe this is primarily a story about the early stages of motherhood, a story of a woman whose body, identity, and relationships are undergoing change. And while this is true, as the narrative unfolds, it becomes clear that Laura is also confronting the weight of her past.

Infante skillfully weaves a thoughtful meditation on aging, intergenerational trauma, and the complexities of motherhood. The brevity of the novel works beautifully; its first-person narration creates a sense of intimacy and immediacy that draws the reader in. I especially appreciated the short form, which allows the emotional undercurrents to resonate without feeling overly heavy or drawn out. I'm glad that I got to discover Infante!

This hauntingly beautiful book first caught my attention with its striking cover — bold, delicate, and impossible to ignore. It perfectly mirrors the emotional depth of the story within.

The Cracks We Bear begins with a raw and honest portrayal of new motherhood, capturing the fear, fragility, and overwhelming emotion of Laura as she holds her newborn.

But this is only the beginning. What follows is a powerful exploration of memory, inherited trauma, and identity as Laura reflects on her childhood in post-dictatorship Chile.

Told in lyrical, vignette-style chapters, the book reads like a mosaic of memory — fractured, tender, and deeply personal. Catalina Infante Beovic’s writing is intimate and unflinching, blending political history with emotional truth in a way that lingers long after the final page.

Quietly powerful and beautifully written.

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The Cracks We Bear tells the story of Laura, mother to a newborn and daughter to Esther, her mother who passed away of cancer. In the chaos of her newly found motherhood — which is vastly different from her expectations — Laura looks back upon her own childhood and the turbulent relationship with her mother.

This novel is short, just over 100 pages, but still manages to encapsulate the bond between mother and daughter exceptionally well. I felt like I got very close to Laura in a very short time. It highlights the hardships of motherhood while including the breaking of a generational cycle. A short but strong read!

Laura was hoping to have the perfect birth but nature doesn't always go to plan. She grapples with her role as a mother, with a child that does not sleep well, her changed body and her isolation from her friends. She also has a great many unresolved issues with her own, now dead, mother.
We get to see a little of Laura's life and the traumas she suffered. As well as the frustrations of a fretful baby who seems to behave with the mother in law, and a husband who has to leave and go back to his own mother for a while. Men do not feature well in this book.
It's a book which could have explored more but seems to also be the right length. I certainly felt I knew Laura and had hopes she would break from the shackles of her mother-issues.

An excellent story that looks at the complexities of motherhood. The book tugs at your heart and details love, loss, grief, hope, and many more aspects of the life of a mom. I enjoyed the writing and translation. Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC.

The book revolves around Laura who has recently given birth, and as she starts this journey she yearns to share this experience with her mother who passed away from cancer years ago. Thus begins an exploration of what it means to be a mother and a daughter, and what motherhood had been for her own mother. With pieces of narrators childhood and current struggles we begin to piece together a narrative and work with her to answer who really was Laura's mother beyond motherhood?

A quite reflection and a reminder of valuing our parents, and having the courage to ask for their stories before it is too late and not knowing haunts us.

3.75 stars

Laura has recently given birth to her first child and is feeling disenchanted by motherhood. Her anger and anxiety is compounded by memories of her own late mother and the strained relationship between the two of them before her death. The Cracks We Bear explore's women's roles as mothers and daughters, and how these intersect. Laura needs to confront the trauma she has been carrying with her in order to break the cycle of abuse and neglect for her own daughter.

This is a very short read, and the author does a fantastic job of making sure the reader knows who Laura is within a few pages. I think most mothers will really resonate with how Laura feels during the newborn trenches, myself included. This includes feeling overwhelmed by but unable to be separated from your child, not recognising your body after birth, and a general feeling of isolation. Laura's mother is remembered as cold and all-powerful, even as she succumbed to cancer. Laura's inability to connect on an emotional level with her mother has left her with with a lot of unresolved grief that she doesn't know what to do with because vulnerability was never modelled in her family. Catalina's writing is so raw and relatable, I truly didn't want this to end.

I personally really connected with and enjoyed the present storyline of Laura's experience of motherhood a lot more out of the two so I wish this was explored more, especially considering it didn't really feel like a resolution was offered despite Laura's soul searching. I'm honestly disappointed this is only a novella because I think there was a lot of room for development that we didn't get.

Overall, this is a great example of dual timelines in literary fiction and I think it'll be a big hit for a lot of women.