BooksCanadian

Motherhood

The question of whether or not to be a mother is explored in Sheila Heti's 2018 novel

Sheila Heti

CBC Books Posted: Jan 10, 2018 4:56 PM EST | Last Updated: August 24, 2022

Motherhood treats one of the most consequential decisions of adulthood whether or not to have children with the intelligence, wit and originality that have won Sheila Heti international acclaim.

Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti's narrator considers, with equal urgency, the question of whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, her body, her family, mysticism and chance, Heti's narrator struggles to make a wise and meaningful choice. In the process, she takes apart, examinesand reconstructs the very idea of "motherhood."

In the diary-like form of a woman in conversation with herself, Motherhood raises radical and essential questions, including whether this pivotal decision is truly "a decision" at all. (From Knopf Canada)

Motherhoodwasshortlisted for the 2018 Scotiabank Giller Prize.

From the Scotiabank Giller Prize jury: "A personal story, a feminist debate, a philosophical reflection on time, genealogy and Art these are just some of the narrative strands thatSheila Hetiweaves intoMotherhood,a complex and defiant exploration of contemporary womanhood. As her narrator interrogates the spaces between motherhood and childlessness, other paths, emerge, including the possibilities of fiction itself. In her playful but precise prose, Hetiturns interiority into an expansive landscape with life-altering implications for her narrator and anyone with an interest in the paradoxes of choice and the randomness of free will."

From the book

When I was younger, thinking about whether I wanted children, I always came back to this formula: If no one had told me anything about the world, I would have invented boyfriends. I'd have invented sex, friendships, art. I would not have invented child-rearing. I would have had to invent those other things to fulfil real longings in me, but if no one had ever told me that a person could create a person, and raise them into a citizen, it wouldn't have occurred to me as something to do. In fact, it would have sounded like a task to very much avoid.

FromMotherhood by Sheila Heti@2018. Published by Knopf Canada.

Interviews

Sheila Heti on getting into readers' minds with Motherhood

6 years ago

1:01

'The book is a really sort of a portrait of a consciousness,' says the 2018 Giller finalist.

The 2018 ScotiabankGiller Prize finalists

French ExitbyPatrick deWitt
Songs for the Cold of HeartbyEric Dupont, translated by PeterMcCambridge
Washington BlackbyEsiEdugyan
MotherhoodbySheila Heti
An Ocean of MinutesbyThea Lim

The winner wasannounced on Nov. 19, 2018.

Add some good to your morning and evening.