An exhilarating and enchanting meditation on becoming a mother from one of America's most acclaimed writers, and winner of the National Book Award for Fiction, 2012.

'She is a winter-spring baby, and all day there is just her, me, snow and the birds outside.'

A mother for all seasons, Erdrich tracks the end of her pregnancy into the dazzling light of childbirth and beyond into her baby's infancy, keeping a weather-eye on Nature outside her window and inside her body, gauging its lessons and constraints. She spills over with the intense feeling a baby carries into being as its gift to its mother.

But her book is no mystical trip; Erdrich is umbilically attached to the earth, and to common sense. All prospective and seasoned parents will cherish her report from the frontline, for she never lectures, she simply strives to record exactly - in language both supple and ripe. Moving and memorable, neither handbook nor tract, here, for perhaps the first time, is mothering converted into writing without fakery.

About the Author

Louise Erdrich is one of the most gifted, prolific, and challenging of American novelists. Her fiction reflects aspects of her mixed heritage: German through her father, and French and Ojibwa through her mother. She is the author of many novels, the first of which, Love Medicine, won the National Book Critics Circle Award and the last of which, The Round House, won the National Book Award for Fiction in 2012. She lives in Minnesota.

Reviews

'The language in this book is stunning, elastic, often full of silence ... Erdrich is forthright and tough-minded in her intentions, generous in her speculations and courageous in her vulnerability before her readers. 'The Blue Jay's Dance' is a book that breaks ground.' Boston Globe

'A refreshing breath of air for new parents struggling to make sense of the chaos into which they've been thrown ... an astonishingly accurate and sensuous evocation of an indescribable experience. For ever more mothers, the often painful decision to work is an emotional as well as a financial necessity, a blue jay's dance. In this joyful yet unsentimental book, Erdrich beautifully captures the daunting trials and immense rewards of bringing a child into this world.' Miami Herald

Book Information
ISBN 9780006547907
Author Louise Erdrich
Format Paperback
Page Count 240
Imprint Flamingo
Publisher HarperCollins Publishers
Weight(grams) 190g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 129mm * 15mm