Expectation: The most razor-sharp and heartbreaking novel of the year

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He can clearly see that Cate is struggling with being a mother, and offers to give her a day or two off but throughout the whole book, we never see him lift a finger to take care of his child. Perhaps this is a narrative that’s been done before – but I doubt any forerunners spoke so powerfully from personal experience. The intended message, it seems to me, is as follows: every first-time mother goes through what Cate was going through in the first few chapters of Expectation, but that's no reason to deny yourself the unparalleled joy of having kids.

Furthermore, despite it’s somewhat novel structure, I found the writing style of this book lacklustre and dull; Descriptions of characters and events lacked and real depth and failed to draw me in. Her husband and mother in law expect more of her than she can give to motherhood, she feels she has lost herself in this-no one has told her that this is a natural way to feel so she sleepwalks through the days. This is a book with two themes: babies (having them, not having them, difficulty having them) and the tension between motherhood and career.

A ‘What they did next’ story of characters from a Sally Rooney novel’ SARAH FRANKLIN’The story of 3 college friends, if you’re a fan of Sally Rooney, you’ll love EXPECTATION’ IRISH EXAMINER’A must-read’ FABULOUS MAGAZINE’A generation-defining book on motherhood, ambition and sex. The prose is beautiful, the characters achingly real, their flawed decisions enraging and yet somehow still relatable. It seems to me that the author left no room in the narrative for a woman to be okay with being childless. The young woman whose desire for a baby eats into her marriage and her husband who the reader can see from the start will stray because of the pressure. Während Cate eher zufällig Mutter geworden ist und an der ihr nun zugeschriebenen Rolle zu zerbrechen droht, kämpft Hannah in einer eigentlich glücklichen Ehe mit einem unerfüllten Kinderwunsch.

The writing is so raw and real, heart-achingly and shockingly so in places, as it follows the lives of three women, friends from young adulthood through the twists and turns of relationships, jobs (or lack of), highs and lows and desperate disappointments. Well, if you don't get the part, you could always do a one-woman show, Directors I Have Known and Been Rejected By. She throws some half-hearted activism plot points into the mix, presumably to earn the title quote of 'what happened to the women we were supposed to become?Facebook sets this cookie to show relevant advertisements to users by tracking user behaviour across the web, on sites that have Facebook pixel or Facebook social plugin. Does she find out that raising a child isn't all joy and laughter - that it can also be stressful, if not downright nightmarish?

Rivals for the top place in their English Literature set, they became firm friends and remained so despite Cate winning a place at Oxford while Hannah found herself at Manchester.

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