An affecting and beautifully written memoir on motherhood and writing by Booker Prize-shortlisted author Elif Shafak.

After the birth of her first child in 2006, Turkish writer Elif Shafak suffered from postpartum depression that triggered a profound personal crisis. Infused with guilt, anxiety and bewilderment about whether she could ever be a good mother, Shafak stopped writing and lost her faith in words altogether.

In this elegantly written memoir, she retraces her journey from free-spirited, nomadic artist to dedicated but emotionally wrought mother. Identifying a constantly bickering harem of women who live inside of her – the cynical intellectual, the goal-oriented go-getter, the practical-rational, the spiritual, the maternal and the lustful – she craves harmony, or at least a unifying identity. As she intersperses her own experience with the lives of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Ayn Rand and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and responsible parenting.

With searing emotional honesty, Shafak has rendered an important work about literature, motherhood and spiritual wellbeing.

A beautiful and touching memoir, perfect for fans of Anne Lamott and Rachel Cusk