Small: On motherhoods

Small is not good for babies, as it is the first time it occurs to us that they might not survive. Claire Lynch's debut begins with the smallest of life's substances, the microscopic cells subdividing in a petri dish in a fertility treatment center. It is devastatingly poignant and profoundly observant, and funny against the odds, as she considers whether it is our smallness that makes our lives so big.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 288 pages
Publication date: 03 March 2022
Publisher: Octopus Publishing Group

Incredible, beautiful, funny, and humane. - EMILIE PINE
Pristine poetry and prose. - KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

Babies who are this small, he says, have a good chance of survival. - KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

Small is not good for babies. - KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

It is not whimsical or cute or the cause of admiration. - KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

It is the first time it occurs to us that they might not survive. - KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

Babies die from smallness. - KATHERINE MAY, AUTHOR OF WINTERING

Claire Lynch knew that having children with her wife would be complicated, but she could never have anticipated the extent to which her life would be redrawn by the process.

This dazzling debut begins with the smallest of life's substances, the microscopic cells subdividing in a petri dish in a fertility treatment center. She moves through her story in incremental yet ever-growing steps, from the fingernail-sized pregnancy test result screen which bears two affirmative lines to the premature arrival of her children, who have to wear scale-model oxygen masks in their life-saving incubators.

Devastatingly poignant and profoundly observant - and funny against the odds - Claire considers whether it is our smallness that makes our lives so big.

Weight: 236g
Dimension: 126 x 196 x 25 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781914240058