The Child

Kjersti A. Skomsvold, Martin Aitken

From Shelf: Struggling Mothers (Fiction)

Narrated by a woman to her new-born, meandering between her enchanted present and her memories of a more difficult past, The Child is a modern exploration of the territory of motherhood.

A young mother speaks to her second born child. Since the drama of childbirth, all feels calm. The world is new and full of surprises, even though dangers lurk behind every corner; a car out of control, disease ever-present in the air, the unforgiving speed of time. She tells of the times before the child was born, when the world felt unsure and enveloped in darkness, of long nights with an older lover, of her writing career and the precariousness of beginning a relationship and then a family with her husband, Bo. A portrait of modern motherhood, THE CHILD is a love story about what it means to be alive and stay alive, no matter how hard the journey.