Mare

'For a long time I had not been that person. For a long time horses had not occurred to me at all.'

For a long time, she and her husband have their dog and she almost certainly doesn't want to have a child. But then the dog dies and she learns she can't have a child even if she wanted to, and she begins to think about horses again. When she hears about a mare who needs looking after part-time, it sounds like an ideal arrangement. Something to care for two days a week, without getting in too deep. But as she brushes and feeds and rides the horse, affection grows into obsession and she must confront what it means to love a being who did not come from her body and who does not belong to her.

Emily Haworth-Booth's award-winning debut novel is a bold and beautiful exploration of contemporary (non)motherhood and the surprising ways in which desire can enthral us and set us free.