About this item
It's an elemental, almost animalistic urge-the expectant mother's hunger for birth narratives. Bookstores are filled with month-by-month pregnancy manuals, but the shelves are virtually empty of artful, entertaining, unvarnished accounts of labor and delivery-the stories that new mothers need most. Here is a book that transcends the limits of how-to guides and honors the act of childbirth in the twenty-first century. Eleanor Henderson and Anna Solomon have gathered true birth stories by women who have made self-expression their business, including Cheryl Strayed, Julia Glass, Lauren Groff, Dani Shapiro, and many other luminaries. In Labor Day, you'll hear about women determined to give birth naturally and others begging for epidurals; women who pushed for hours and women whose labors were over practically before they'd started; women giving birth to twins and to ten-pound babies. These women give birth in the hospital, at home, in bathtubs, and, yes, even in the car. Some revel in labor, some fear labor, some feel defeated by labor, some are fulfilled by it-and all are amazed by it. You will laugh, weep, squirm, perhaps groan in recognition, and undoubtedly gasp with surprise. And then you'll call every mother or mother-to-be that you know and say "You must read Labor Day."
About the Author
Eleanor Henderson's latest novel is The Twelve-Mile Straight (Ecco, 2017) . Her debut novel, Ten Thousand Saints (Ecco, 2011) , was named one of the 10 Best Books of 2011 by The New York Times, was a finalist for the Art Seidenbaum Award for First Fiction from the Los Angeles Times, and was adapted into a movie in 2015. Her work has appeared in Agni, The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Poets & Writers, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and The Best American Short Stories. With Anna Solomon she is the co-editor of Labor Day: True Birth Stories by America's Best Women Writers (FSG, 2014) . An associate professor at Ithaca College, she lives in Ithaca, New York, with her husband and two sons.
