The Nursery

"The Nursery details a new mother's spiraling descent into a state of complete disaffection. Following the birth of her baby, "Button," she has a difficult time identifying with her post-pregnancy body, Button "itself," and finding comfort in her relationships-with the exception of her elderly upstairs neighbor, whom she strikes up a tentative friendship with. Plagued by intrusive thoughts and paranoia, she withers in the self-imposed prison of her apartment and struggles to re-establish her sense of self, feeling as though she has swapped her profession as a translator and her personal agency to become an automated 'milk bar.' Gradual and revelatory, the novel documents the slow process of staggering back towards the simple pleasures of life and re-entering the world after post-partum"--