Naomi Booth

'raw content is a work of dark, aching beauty' HELEN JUKES'A stunning mix of horror and tenderness, love and despair. It's rare to see such a raw and real account of early motherhood' KIRSTY LOGAN'No other novel has explored the terrifying and joyful transformations of parenthood with such dazzling power' ABI CURTIS'Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are the ghosts that haunt Grace's youth, but it is the land itself that remains pregnant with dread, the empty mills and the rushing rivers both poignant and alive' HEATHER PARRY'The landscape of Yorkshire is beautifully depicted' NB Magazine'An unervingly honest and uncensored account of the claustrophobic intensity of new motherhood . . . a rare gift' Yorkshire Life'In this small but powerful novel a harsh and haunted Northern landscape mirrors the fears and fragilities of a new mother as she gradually discovers new ways of living - and of loving' ALICE JOLLY'This insightful and beautiful book turned me inside out' PRAGYA AGARWAL When Grace becomes unexpectedly pregnant, the rush of excitement and fear that she experiences is like joyriding again. Grace welcomes a partner and baby into her life, but after the euphoria of giving birth, she is overwhelmed by terrifying visions. The awesome beauty and dark history of Grace's childhood on Yorkshire moorlands resurfaces. Learning how to mother forces Grace to revisit all her most intimate relationships - including with her own mother - and it transforms how she understands her place in the world, ushering in new forms of care that become sources of revelation. Tender, vivid and brave, raw content explores the most unsettling and taboo experiences of mothering with illuminating power.

'raw content is a work of dark, aching beauty' Helen Jukes, author of Mother Animal'A stunning mix of horror and tenderness, love and despair. It's rare to see such a raw and real account of early motherhood' Kirsty Logan, author of The Unfamiliar: A Queer Motherhood Memoir'A brooding and bruising psychodrama about the anxieties of 21st century motherhood, that links the primal potency of the female body with the northern landscape's elemental power' Stu Hennigan, author of Ghost Signs'My childhood was a map marked with danger zones . . . Me and my sister were cared for. We were bathed and fed and clothed. But, as with many children, we couldn't have told you if we were loved. Our experience of care came in the form of a warning'Grace's work requires her to be careful. She spends her days reading and editing legal case files, making sure the latest judgments are published as quickly and accurately as possible. But outside of her work, Grace is not a careful person. Her father's history as a police officer working across an infamous case shadows her life, as does the violent history entrenched across the Colne Valley landscape of her childhood, and her fears often surface as recklessness. When Grace becomes unexpectedly pregnant, she tries to accommodate her boyfriend and the prospect of the baby in her life. But after the relief and strange joy of the birth, Grace starts to imagine all sorts of terrible injuries and deaths befalling her child. The steep stairs to her apartment, the kitchen scissors, a boiling kettle all suddenly hold visceral and overwhelming potential for disaster. The baby's vulnerability terrifies her: fault-lines in her relationship begin to show, and her family history and repressed memories of violence break to the surface. Tender, gripping and life-affirming, raw content tells the story of a woman grappling with a new form of love that feels like a disaster.

A felmelegedés egyre elviselhetetlenebb, a bozóttüzek egyre gyakoribbak, és egyre nagyobb területeket fenyegetnek. A veszélyeztetett vidékekről a lakosokat táborokba telepítik, embertelen körülmények közé. A nagyvárosi lakosság körében viszont egy új, rettenetes betegség terjed, amelynek következtében a betegeket a saját bőrük öli meg. A nyolc hónapos terhes Alice, aki szociális munkásként keserű tapasztalatokat szerzett a hatóságok működésének elégtelenségéről, a kórtól rettegve ráveszi párját, hogy költözzenek el a Sydney mellett elterülő Kék-hegység lábához, egy isten háta mögötti kisvárosba, hátha ott biztonságra és békére lelhet, megszabadulhat a rémálmoktól, és új életet kezdhet a családjával. A terhesség kiélesítette érzékeit, de paranoiáját is: Alice mindenhol mindenben veszélyt lát, amely az ő és születendő gyermeke életét fenyegeti. Naomi Booth első regénye mindennapjaink nagyon is égető, valós problémáit ötvözi a spekulatív irodalom elemeivel. Az eredmény magával ragadóan izgalmas, ugyanakkor kényszerítően elgondolkodtató, újszerű történet, horrorba bújtatott öko-science-fiction.