A Lie Someone Told You About Yourself is a moving and unflinchingly honest account of fatherhood, one man’s struggle to come to terms with abortion and the trials and tribulations of later bearing a son and watching him grow into a man and bringing with it another sense of loss as he begins to make his own way in the world. It begins with an unnamed couple being informed of the results of pre-natal tests on the fetus. They are told that there is a high probability that their unborn child will be born with a rare genetic condition. Some of the cells in the test were normal. Some of the cells had too many chromosomes. The medical term was mosaicism. So, after their doctor gives them a list of potential birth defects, they decide to abort the baby but the decision weighs heavy on both of their hearts and shame creeps into their thoughts refusing to allow them to try and heal from such a difficult ordeal. Later, she gets pregnant once more and everything is seemingly smooth sailing until the birth when the baby turns blue on the delivery table and is rushed to intensive care. He is well enough to be discharged after four days and the threesome settle into a routine. Sleep-deprived, panicked and paranoid, the parents worry when he cries, sleeps and does all of the things a healthy baby should do.
As he develops they notice he is different to everyone else and those around him ask if he may be autistic. But the parents fear getting him tested as it brings back memories of the abortion. This is a refreshingly original novella that focuses on fatherhood from the fathers third-person perspective, which is a point of view we rarely see explored. Most aptly categorised as autobiographical fiction, or autofiction, I thought leaving the characters unnamed was an intelligent method of getting the reader to focus on the subject matter and emotions involved rather than the people. It is an acutely perceptive exploration of the almost always neglected joys and hardships leading up to fatherhood straight from the horse's mouth so we understand that fathers too are just as emotionally invested in their child's welfare as the mother even though this isn't usually how it is portrayed. It's superbly written, highly relatable, whether you're a parent or not, and deeply moving; Ho Davies has the amazing ability of making you feel every word and many of the sentences linger in the mind. A captivating, intimate and ultimately heartbreaking prose poem, this is a candid, engaging and emotionally resonant take on the highs and lows, trials and tribulations of parenthood. Highly recommended.
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