Four Mothers
An Intimate Journey through the First Year of Parenthood in Four Countries
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- $10.99
Publisher Description
Abigail Leonard's page-turning narrative of four real women—Anna from Finland, Tsukasa from Japan, Sarah from the U.S., and Chelsea from Kenya—is a "deeply personal look at women worldwide grappling with the best and worst moments of their first year... eye-opening and cathartic, this is a love letter to parents and a clarion call for better policy.” (Eve Rodsky, New York Times-bestselling author of Fair Play)
Tsukasa in Japan grapples with memories of a difficult childhood as she tries to chart a new, healthier path for her own daughter while balancing onerous cultural expectations. Chelsea in Kenya endures a devastating loss just before she gives birth and finds that without the traditional support of previous generations, motherhood can be grueling – but it can also provide emotional healing. Anna in Finland navigates a complicated relationship with her child’s father, but the country’s robust family policies allow her to still pursue the kind of parenthood that she envisioned. Sarah in the US leaves the religious community that raised her in order to create a less traditional family of her own only to find she’s largely confronting motherhood alone.
Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Leonard interweaves these stories with a critically researched exploration of how parental support programs evolved in each country—and why some provide more help than others. As nations around the world debate programs like paid leave, universal daycare, reproductive healthcare, and family tax incentives, Four Mothers offers a uniquely intimate, moving portrait of what those policies mean for parents on the ground—and considers what modern families really want.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"The way societies support families is critical to how women experience motherhood," journalist Leonard asserts in this by turns piercing and poignant debut. Through four profiles of mothers living in four different countries, Leonard provides a fine-grained look at the evolution of each woman's thoughts and feelings over the course of her first year of motherhood. Drawing on in-depth interviews and observations made while shadowing her subjects, she tracks how their day-to-day experiences of raising a newborn are impacted by the safety nets (or lack thereof) that encompass them on a "social, cultural, and state" level. In Finland, for example, Anna has access to multiple state services that ease the burden of motherhood—including a year of paid leave and subsidized day care—while Chelsea in Kenya, who theoretically has access to subsidized day care, struggles to find a provider. But state services are only part of the complex equation Leonard articulates. Each woman also contends with far more ephemeral forces in the cultural and interpersonal spheres—ranging from Tsukasa's wrestling with societal pressure in Japan to become a stay-at-home mom to Sarah's uncertainty in the U.S. about whether her polyamorous relationship will impact her child—all of which Leonard relays in lithe, captivating prose. ("Freed from the fuss of romance, she throws herself into the straightforward salve of scheduling," Leonard writes of Anna as she initiates custody proceedings with her estranged partner.) This is an enthralling and kaleidoscopic view of modern motherhood.
