Motherland: What I've Learnt about Parenthood, Race and Identity

In M(other)land, Nadiya Hussain explores the intersection of personal and cultural identity with motherhood, offering a powerful and witty response to the absence of an inclusive blueprint for navigating life as a multi-faceted mother. The book is a crucial read for anyone struggling with race and motherhood, providing a voice of understanding for those who have felt other and struggled to reconcile their past or cultural upbringing with how they raise the next generation.

Format: Hardback
Length: 256 pages
Publication date: 09 March 2023
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd

What does it mean to be a parent in a space where you are the minority? Meandering through a supermarket highway of camembert and baguettes, Priya Joi heard a heart-stopping confession about her daughter's identity that made her entire being implode like a dying star. Confronted with the fact that maybe her daughter was not entirely at peace with her appearance, she suddenly had to grapple not only with motherhood but also how to talk to her kid about race and identity. In M(other)land, Joi writes powerfully about how her personal and cultural identity intersect with motherhood - and how they inform her identity as a (British-Indian) parent and step-parent. The book is her powerful, witty response to the absence of an inclusive, accessible blueprint for navigating life as a multi-faceted mother. By sharing her own story, she writes into this silence and provides a voice of understanding for all those who fall outside of dominant presentations of parenthood and have never seen themselves or their experiences represented. M(other)land is a crucial book for anyone trying to navigate the complexities of race and motherhood, who has ever felt other, who has struggled to reconcile their past or cultural upbringing with how they raise the next generation. Joi passes on hard-won knowledge that has taken years to learn: the complexity of your identity is just who you are - it's okay to be both, neither, or multiple things at once - instead of fighting it, feeling neither is a strength and a state of mind that you can revel in. A beautifully written memoir and a thought-provoking critical intervention into race and motherhood - we can all learn something.

Weight: 364g
Dimension: 144 x 224 x 27 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9780241574317