The Birth of Love
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Literature is full of death and sex, but the third part of the elemental trilogy that defines our lives birth is relatively absent. Joanna Kavenna s novel changes all that. --Jonathan Gibb, Financial Times
Past, present and future are cleverly woven into a meditation about the shattering experience of birth. --The Times
Driven, risked and achieved, The Birth of Love is shaped with rare accomplishment and integrity --Iain Sinclair
'Deal[s] sensitively with the fear and elation that surround the process of creation ... perhaps because readers are less squeamish and writers have childcare, a literature of parenthood is being born and Kavenna's off-spring is a fine addition to the nursery.' --Guardian
Driven, risked and achieved, The Birth of Love is shaped with rare accomplishment and integrity --Iain Sinclair --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Past, present and future are cleverly woven into a meditation about the shattering experience of birth. --The Times
Driven, risked and achieved, The Birth of Love is shaped with rare accomplishment and integrity --Iain Sinclair
'Deal[s] sensitively with the fear and elation that surround the process of creation ... perhaps because readers are less squeamish and writers have childcare, a literature of parenthood is being born and Kavenna's off-spring is a fine addition to the nursery.' --Guardian
Driven, risked and achieved, The Birth of Love is shaped with rare accomplishment and integrity --Iain Sinclair --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.
Book Description
Through the interwoven stories of four very different characters, The Birth of Love explores the intense, conflicting emotions of motherhood as few contemporary novels have dared to do.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
It is four initially disparate stories which make up `The Birth of Love'. We first have the story, in forms of letters to a Dr Wilson, of the incarceration of Herr S in a Viennese asylum in the 1800's. This is a man wracked with guilt over the amount of women he believes he has murdered and the never ending dreams and visions of blood that he is the subject to. Secondly is the tale of Brigid whose second child, she is what is now deemed as a mature mother, is overdue and we join her as her mother arrives and so it seems do her contractions. Thirdly is the narrative of Michael, and author whose works on a doctor from the 1800's has just been published and on the day of release learns his mother is ill with dementia. Fourthly, and finally, we have the unnamed Prisoner 730004 in the year 2153 who has been captured after leaving the `safety' (which we soon learn are confines) of Darwin C and has escaped to an island where the `Magna Mater' Birgitta is rumoured to have given birth, a quite impossible act in the times of egg and sperm harvesting and offspring farming.
You might think that merely from its title this is a book solely about birth; in fact it's also about the bonds of motherhood. Michael has a very distant and angry relationship with his mother and the news of her illness seems to completely pass him by, Brigid's relationship with her overbearing mother leaves her to think about her future mothering of her own children, Prisoner 730004 feels she has lost something by being denied the right to be a mother and Herr S feels he has stolen mothers from there children.
It is a real cacophony of tales and one which could have seemed too far fetched and with too much scope yet Kavenna pulls these four strands together and creates four worlds which are all very real and tangible despite their vast differences. Whilst reading this, and I don't think its because one of the strands is rather like `The Handmaids Tale', I often found myself thinking of Margaret Atwood's writing. You constantly feel that Kavenna has you following the exact path she wants you to, observing things and similarities as you go along, almost as if she is connecting with her reader as she writes. This is a quality you don't find often in books and certainly not ones with so much scope which ask the reader to `hold on, it will all come together' yet you never question that they won't.
My only small issue with the book was that whilst I liked the way it's written, and Kavenna's style of phrase and prose in short bursts with breaks between paragraphs, in the case of Michael's narrative it seemed to distant me from him some what and on occasion his being an author almost preached as to how clever authors are. I am sure that wasn't the intention, but something in his sections lost the flow of the novel as a whole for me a little now and again. This however is a small blip in a novel that I found rather exciting to read.
If you haven't read `The Birth of Love' or have been debating reading it then I would say delve in. It's a fascinating book about child birth, motherhood and has a great humour just as it has a great darkness. It's interesting that it's a book that reflects the past, the now and the future as I think in time this could become a modern classic from an author that is certainly one to watch.
You might think that merely from its title this is a book solely about birth; in fact it's also about the bonds of motherhood. Michael has a very distant and angry relationship with his mother and the news of her illness seems to completely pass him by, Brigid's relationship with her overbearing mother leaves her to think about her future mothering of her own children, Prisoner 730004 feels she has lost something by being denied the right to be a mother and Herr S feels he has stolen mothers from there children.
It is a real cacophony of tales and one which could have seemed too far fetched and with too much scope yet Kavenna pulls these four strands together and creates four worlds which are all very real and tangible despite their vast differences. Whilst reading this, and I don't think its because one of the strands is rather like `The Handmaids Tale', I often found myself thinking of Margaret Atwood's writing. You constantly feel that Kavenna has you following the exact path she wants you to, observing things and similarities as you go along, almost as if she is connecting with her reader as she writes. This is a quality you don't find often in books and certainly not ones with so much scope which ask the reader to `hold on, it will all come together' yet you never question that they won't.
My only small issue with the book was that whilst I liked the way it's written, and Kavenna's style of phrase and prose in short bursts with breaks between paragraphs, in the case of Michael's narrative it seemed to distant me from him some what and on occasion his being an author almost preached as to how clever authors are. I am sure that wasn't the intention, but something in his sections lost the flow of the novel as a whole for me a little now and again. This however is a small blip in a novel that I found rather exciting to read.
If you haven't read `The Birth of Love' or have been debating reading it then I would say delve in. It's a fascinating book about child birth, motherhood and has a great humour just as it has a great darkness. It's interesting that it's a book that reflects the past, the now and the future as I think in time this could become a modern classic from an author that is certainly one to watch.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
This is the most beautifully observed writing I have ever read, describing the tenderness between mother and child...the way Callumn pats Brigid's thigh whilst she recovers from a contraction in the garden. She describes family tensions, depicting each character wonderfully. Her imaginings of how Callumn's coping without her whilst she's in hospital and the overwhelming terror, that you could never love a second child like the first....is addressed perfectly by Kavenna. I had to hold my breath in parts because her words spoke so closely of my experience. As a midwife I was interested how she described the historic consequences of paternalistic childbirth alongside it's present day advances that saves lives. Within the book there is a spiritual existential viewpoint of birth being more than bringing forth new life...that the love it brings is both sacred and unconditional.
Although I believe Michael's complicated and rather melancholic character, showed self sacrifice and perseverance,as the other sections did, his motivation was less clear; perhaps an escape from his own mother. Yet his story created tension at the conclusion of the book. I also loved the differing styles of prose in each of the eras, the interleaving of which, was beautifully crafted.
I am now a confirmed Joanna Kavenna fan. Thank you for such a great read.
Although I believe Michael's complicated and rather melancholic character, showed self sacrifice and perseverance,as the other sections did, his motivation was less clear; perhaps an escape from his own mother. Yet his story created tension at the conclusion of the book. I also loved the differing styles of prose in each of the eras, the interleaving of which, was beautifully crafted.
I am now a confirmed Joanna Kavenna fan. Thank you for such a great read.
2 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The only flaw for me in this book was Michael's character; I found his parts dull compared to the other sections of the book, hard to relate to, and his style was hard to concentrate on.
However, that is not enough of a negative for me to give the novel four stars - I still love it. The dystopian future was not absurd or unimaginable - elements of it reminded me of Never Let Me Go, one of my favourite books. The past was fascinating, making me want to read Michael's book about Semmelweis.
I'd have been happy if the book had been twice as long. I wanted to read more of Brigid, more of Birgitta, more of Semmelweis, which is a great thing. Incredibly moving, incredibly powerful, incredibly well-written.
However, that is not enough of a negative for me to give the novel four stars - I still love it. The dystopian future was not absurd or unimaginable - elements of it reminded me of Never Let Me Go, one of my favourite books. The past was fascinating, making me want to read Michael's book about Semmelweis.
I'd have been happy if the book had been twice as long. I wanted to read more of Brigid, more of Birgitta, more of Semmelweis, which is a great thing. Incredibly moving, incredibly powerful, incredibly well-written.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Laborious Rubbish
BIRTH OF LOVE is the story of the extended labour of Brigit aged 42, giving birth to her second child, interwoven with exerts from "The Moon", a historical novel by Michael Stone;... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kartowidjojo
Dark, riveting, thought provoking
I read this easily in a weekend as I was absolutely riveted. The plot follows four main characters; Brigid in labour in 2009, Micheal about to publish a book (2009), prisoners of... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mrs. Fiona Wilton
a present for an expectant mother
I read a review on one of the broadsheets and thought it would be perfect for a friend who was expecting and loves reading, I hope the vaguely morbid themes of some chapters did... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Delfino Cortese
The Birth of Love - I wish!!
This book tries too hard. It's overtly sentimental in some parts and in - credible (in it's true sense) in others. Felt like a book trying too hard. Read more
Published 11 months ago by S C Thomas
The Birth of Love and the Growth of a Huge New Talent
A powerful, gripping novel - four stories, dramatically different - superbly told in sparse, but poetic prose, linking and unlinking, extending the boundaries of the modern novel... Read more
Published 18 months ago by wildlife
An outstanding novel by a writer to watch
This is the most moving and powerful novel I have read for a long time. Kavenna's work reminds me of the ambition of writers like Margaret Atwood and David Mitchell: the prose is... Read more
Published 18 months ago by The White Rabbit
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