Motherhood is one of the topics integral to feminist thought and activism. There are plenty of theoretical books dissecting this topic, but for visceral engagement, and for a fresh and darkly humoured look at what having children can do to our sense of self and our life choices and chances, Cusk’s memoir of becoming a mother is priceless. The personnel here is, as in the best feminist literature, deeply political. Read it even just for such quotes as ‘Motherhood is a career in conformity from which no amount of subterfuge can liberate the soul without violence.’ There are no manifestoes here, but an idiosyncratic yet also universally resonating, and non-euphemistic, reflection on all those myriads of adjustments women make, or try to avoid making, if they decide to have children.