Hush: 'Shows the push and pull of motherhood...I was absolutely glued to it' Emma Gannon

Description

What if the thing you most wanted feels nothing like you expected? A gripping, beautifully written and taboo-busting debut novel about motherhood and female identity. After five exhilarating years in New York, Stevie has a successful career and a glamorous social life. But what she most wants is a baby, an aspiration that feels impossible given that she is single, thirty-eight and living in a tiny apartment in Manhattan, far away from most of her family in England. Determined to become a mother, Stevie returns to London and has a baby on her own. When she gives birth to Ash, she finds motherhood painfully at odds with her former life and her expectations. She begins to wonder if having a child was a mistake - and what she might be willing to do to escape. As she struggles with her new reality and what her future might hold, revelations from the past change everything she believed about family and love.

Kate Maxwell was born in London and has worked as a journalist, editor and broadcaster in London and New York. Hush is her first novel and was shortlisted for the Bridport Prize's Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award.

This beautifully written debut explores what it really means to choose to go it alone as a single mother, as well as the unforeseen consequences of that choice... I loved everything about this emotionally intelligent, compelling, raw and original book. Fabulous * Daily Mail * An unflinching look at both work-as-identity and modern parenting * Grazia, a Hot Debut * Hush dishes out brutal honesty around motherhood and is by turns shocking and tender * Metro * Skilfully written by the fresh new voice, Kate Maxwell, this debut brilliantly explores the societal expectations put on women through the compelling Stevie, and gives us a worthy protagonist for this modern age * Harper's Bazaar * A beautifully written meditation on motherhood * The i Paper * A daring, compelling novel about motherhood * Cosmopolitan * In terms of hype, debuts don't come any hotter than Kate Maxwell's Hush, which features a new riff on motherhood in an increasingly crowded pen... Utterly compelling * Irish Independent * A richly textured, exciting and mysterious debut novel showing the push and pull of motherhood, career identity and what it means to be a woman with multiple sides. Relatable and entertaining. I was absolutely glued to it * Emma Gannon, author of OLIVE * A vivid, compelling story about the unspoken truths of motherhood, family and feminine ideals. Tender, unflinching and beautifully evoked * Francesca Hornak, author of Seven Days of Us * An engaging parable about the ambiguity of modern motherhood, told with warmth and wit * Leah Hazard, bestselling author of Hard Pushed * Maxwell explores uncomfortable but important truths about motherhood brilliantly in her story of a mother falling apart, and piecing herself back together * Julia Bueno, author of THE BRINK OF BEING * Hush is a beautifully-written meditation on motherhood, identity and belonging - at once tender and resilient, incisive and heart-breaking. In this assured debut, Kate Maxwell captures how love grows and morphs and, ultimately, endures * Charlotte Philby, author of Edith and Kim * Kate Maxwell's debut novel explores the complexities and emotional roller-coaster of single motherhood... Well-researched and compelling * The Lady * Hush will break and remake your heart in one sitting. A wry and tender story that considers the potential for all strands of female life - friends, family, career - to become the loves of your life. This poignant tale of the blur of new motherhood will make you check in on your children if you have them - and on the woman you were before they arrived. I loved it * Harriet Walker, author of The New Girl * I ADORED Hush. I have never read anything that so accurately voiced the struggles I experienced as a new mother. It felt totally real to me and I was hooked from start to finish. I also loved all the other relationships that were so nuanced and heartfelt. I finished the book with that wonderful ache you get after reading a book that has moved you and uplifted you in equal measure * Libby Page, bestselling author of The Island Home * With sharp, perceptive, and tender prose that is at times scathing, Maxwell pushes the boundaries of what society tells us is acceptable, and perhaps what the reader feels she can forgive, then brings us back again to not only empathize with but root for her protagonist. Maxwell shows a type of motherly love seldom written about, one that's not instantaneous, but grows slowly, with difficulty, and is no less beautiful as it blossoms into something so incredible it takes your breath away * Charlene Carr, author of Hold My Girl (2023) * Longing to have a child, Stevie changes her Manhattan career-oriented life for single parenthood in her native England in Maxwell's powerful, nuanced meditation on the struggles experienced by new mothers * Waterstones * Beautifully written, with a nuanced understanding of what it means to lose sight of who you are, for whatever reason, and what it means to get yourself back or burn it all down and start again * Sophia Blackwell * I devoured this book - it was so compelling * Clover Stroud *