Description
'The Long Answer is a triumph of human portraiture, as subtle as it is seething' Sunday Times 'There were other women, how many other women, who had felt and wanted what I'd felt and wanted, and felt and wanted differently too. Anywhere I've been and will go next, there they will be.' Twelve weeks pregnant for the first time, Anna speaks to her sister on the other side of the country and learns she has just miscarried her second child. As this loss strains their bond, and complications with Anna's own pregnancy emerge, her tenuous steps towards motherhood are shadowed and illuminated by the women she meets along the way, whose stories of the babies they have had, or longed for, or lost, crowd in. The Long Answer is a stunning novel of secrets kept and secrets shared. Deeply empathetic and hugely absorbing, it unravels the intimate dynamics of female friendship, sisterhood, motherhood and grief, and the ways in which women are bound together and pulled apart by their shared and contrasting experiences of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage and infertility.
A young woman gathers intimate stories about pregnancy, motherhood, and the nature of female relationships, in this profound and provocative novel
About the Author
Anna Hogeland is a psychotherapist in private practice, with an MSW from Smith College School of Social Work and an MFA from UC Irvine. She lives in Vermont.
Reviews
A breathtaking roundup of the many ways that women carry and lose babies and pregnancies, so many possible and impossible choices to be made, so many capitulations and coercions to be endured. All the narratives in the novel make clear that the only thing that makes any of it bearable is the agency each woman can claim...These stories are crucial. * The New York Times Book Review *
A brilliant debut, both coolly empathetic and searingly personal, a powerful bridge between fiction's two current modes. Anna Hogeland writes beautifully, with unwavering passion and insight, about the complexities of motherhood and female relationships. -- Jess Walter, New York Times-bestselling author of The Cold Millions
The Long Answer is truly brilliant. Anna Hogeland writes generously and astutely about motherhood, grief, fertility, and the relationship dynamics between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, articulating with aching clarity the irresolution of loss, and the quiet power of love. I'm so happy that this beautiful book exists. -- Miranda Ward, author of Adrift
An introspective, psychologically astute, and engaging debut... a heart-rending tale that blurs the line between fiction and reality...A startling meditation on grief and family and betrayal and the stories we tell about ourselves. * Kirkus starred review *
I loved this debut novel by Anna Hogeland about motherhood - so coolly and intricately constructed, so quietly intimate, and devastating at its heart. -- Lucy Caldwell
The Long Answer is a triumph of human portraiture, as subtle as it is seething * Sunday Times *
In concentric circles of stories told and stories secreted away, The Long Answer is about women making life and losing life and about fertility itself - the promise and the more complicated truth. This beautiful novel tugs at friendship, marriage, family and women in moments of heartbreaking and miraculous transformation. -- Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty
A brilliantly constructed novel about women, and about the power of love in the heart of one woman through whom these female souls are elucidated, their passions, their terrible losses, and their bravery. These characters breathe on the page, and their stories are moving and involving. Anna Hogeland is a wonderfully talented writer. -- Richard Bausch, PEN/Malamud and Dayton Literary Peace Prize-winning author
A subtle, honest, engaging novel about female friendships, sibling relationships and the joys and costs of motherhood -- Alice Jolly, author of Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, shortlisted for the the 2019 Rathbones Folio Prize
In her gorgeous debut, The Long Answer, Anna Hogeland expertly explores issues of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and the uncertainty and trauma that too often accompany these major events ... readers will feel heard and seen. -- Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation
A compelling, often-heartbreaking tale of belonging, loss, and rebirth. Looking beyond pregnancy's physical transformations, Hogeland explores what it means to feel parental, to choose a life bigger than your own, or to lose a precious gift ... a heartfelt, finely wrought journey for fans of Suzanne Finnamore, Erica Jong, and Marian Keyes. -- Stephanie Turza * Booklist *
Anna Hogeland's The Long Answer is the novel that millions of parents, mothers in particular, have been waiting for. It breaks the silence that has prevailed for so long around pregnancy and its discontents, the anguish of losing a pregnancy, the wrenching decision to end one, the rage and envy that so many woman feel around the process of procreation. I've never read a book that speaks so bravely, and eloquently, about the burdens that women carry. Hogeland brings moments of darkness into the light. Astonishing. A masterpiece. -- Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak
Told with tenderness and care, one woman's journey manages to encapsulate a whole chorus of voices sharing their private heartbreaks. The Long Answer is a subtle and deeply moving novel; I loved it. -- Ruth Gilligan, author of The Butchers and winner of the 2021 RSL Ondaatje Prize
Provocative * The Sunday Post *
Hogeland invites us to feel things without prodding us hard to amplify the pain ... In The Long Answer each story is totally absorbing and vivid. Quite a feat! -- Lizzy Stewart, author of Alison
Book Information
ISBN 9781800814738
Author Anna Hogeland
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Serpent's Tail
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 240g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 28mm
A young woman gathers intimate stories about pregnancy, motherhood, and the nature of female relationships, in this profound and provocative novel
About the Author
Anna Hogeland is a psychotherapist in private practice, with an MSW from Smith College School of Social Work and an MFA from UC Irvine. She lives in Vermont.
Reviews
A breathtaking roundup of the many ways that women carry and lose babies and pregnancies, so many possible and impossible choices to be made, so many capitulations and coercions to be endured. All the narratives in the novel make clear that the only thing that makes any of it bearable is the agency each woman can claim...These stories are crucial. * The New York Times Book Review *
A brilliant debut, both coolly empathetic and searingly personal, a powerful bridge between fiction's two current modes. Anna Hogeland writes beautifully, with unwavering passion and insight, about the complexities of motherhood and female relationships. -- Jess Walter, New York Times-bestselling author of The Cold Millions
The Long Answer is truly brilliant. Anna Hogeland writes generously and astutely about motherhood, grief, fertility, and the relationship dynamics between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, articulating with aching clarity the irresolution of loss, and the quiet power of love. I'm so happy that this beautiful book exists. -- Miranda Ward, author of Adrift
An introspective, psychologically astute, and engaging debut... a heart-rending tale that blurs the line between fiction and reality...A startling meditation on grief and family and betrayal and the stories we tell about ourselves. * Kirkus starred review *
I loved this debut novel by Anna Hogeland about motherhood - so coolly and intricately constructed, so quietly intimate, and devastating at its heart. -- Lucy Caldwell
The Long Answer is a triumph of human portraiture, as subtle as it is seething * Sunday Times *
In concentric circles of stories told and stories secreted away, The Long Answer is about women making life and losing life and about fertility itself - the promise and the more complicated truth. This beautiful novel tugs at friendship, marriage, family and women in moments of heartbreaking and miraculous transformation. -- Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty
A brilliantly constructed novel about women, and about the power of love in the heart of one woman through whom these female souls are elucidated, their passions, their terrible losses, and their bravery. These characters breathe on the page, and their stories are moving and involving. Anna Hogeland is a wonderfully talented writer. -- Richard Bausch, PEN/Malamud and Dayton Literary Peace Prize-winning author
A subtle, honest, engaging novel about female friendships, sibling relationships and the joys and costs of motherhood -- Alice Jolly, author of Mary Ann Sate, Imbecile, shortlisted for the the 2019 Rathbones Folio Prize
In her gorgeous debut, The Long Answer, Anna Hogeland expertly explores issues of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and the uncertainty and trauma that too often accompany these major events ... readers will feel heard and seen. -- Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation
A compelling, often-heartbreaking tale of belonging, loss, and rebirth. Looking beyond pregnancy's physical transformations, Hogeland explores what it means to feel parental, to choose a life bigger than your own, or to lose a precious gift ... a heartfelt, finely wrought journey for fans of Suzanne Finnamore, Erica Jong, and Marian Keyes. -- Stephanie Turza * Booklist *
Anna Hogeland's The Long Answer is the novel that millions of parents, mothers in particular, have been waiting for. It breaks the silence that has prevailed for so long around pregnancy and its discontents, the anguish of losing a pregnancy, the wrenching decision to end one, the rage and envy that so many woman feel around the process of procreation. I've never read a book that speaks so bravely, and eloquently, about the burdens that women carry. Hogeland brings moments of darkness into the light. Astonishing. A masterpiece. -- Steve Almond, author of Candyfreak
Told with tenderness and care, one woman's journey manages to encapsulate a whole chorus of voices sharing their private heartbreaks. The Long Answer is a subtle and deeply moving novel; I loved it. -- Ruth Gilligan, author of The Butchers and winner of the 2021 RSL Ondaatje Prize
Provocative * The Sunday Post *
Hogeland invites us to feel things without prodding us hard to amplify the pain ... In The Long Answer each story is totally absorbing and vivid. Quite a feat! -- Lizzy Stewart, author of Alison
Book Information
ISBN 9781800814738
Author Anna Hogeland
Format Paperback
Page Count 304
Imprint Serpent's Tail
Publisher Profile Books Ltd
Weight(grams) 240g
Dimensions(mm) 198mm * 130mm * 28mm
