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Book of the month

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Original poster

Join Sarah Moss to talk about our May Book of the Month, NIGHT WAKING, on Wed 30 May 9-10pm

196 replies

TillyBookClub · 03/05/2012 22:43

May's Book of the Month is one of the best books on motherhood I've read for ages. Like Helen Simpson in Hey Yeah Right Get a Life, Sarah Moss is one of those authors that just nails it. This is a book you'll be passing on to everyone around you, and should win prizes for its author.

Anna Cassingham (aka Dr Bennet) is an Oxford Research Fellow writing a history book. Only she isn't, because she is also trying to cope with the incessant interruptions, questions and demands of precocious, death-obsessed, seven year old Raph and two year old Moth, who has yet to sleep through the night. Husband Giles, owner of the tiny island of Colsay where they have come to live for the summer, is keen on homemade bread and recycling, less keen on childcare and clean surfaces. Whilst planting a tree one day, the family discover a baby's skeleton, which sets Anna (and the police) on a papertrail of stories that are interlinked with the island's history and Giles's family. The dialogue is sharp and funny, the observations are lively and true to life. Above all, the tension between the visceral love for your family and the need for self-preservation is brilliantly explored.

Find out more on the book of the month page, and you can check out Sarah's website for videos, reviews and more details on the people and places that inspired the book.

Granta have given us 50 copies to give away to Mumsnetters - to claim yours go to the book of the month page and fill in your details. We'll post here when all the copies have gone. If you're not lucky enough to bag one of the free books, you can always get your paperback or Kindle version here.

We are delighted that Sarah will be joining us to chat about NIGHT WAKING, motherhood and her writing career on Wednesday 30 May, 9-10pm. Hope you can join us then...

OP posts:
lumbago · 21/05/2012 23:05

Lol Hully.
For being crap. Not really educating. Neglect.

Bad cooking. ;)

blubberguts · 22/05/2012 07:54

Well if it's neglect it's a very middle class brand of it.... I mean it's a bit rough and ready but the kids feel secure and loved, don't they?

blubberguts · 22/05/2012 07:59

Totally agree about the school thing though, bizarre decision and doesn't seem to be doing Raph any favours either.

Hullygully · 22/05/2012 08:51

I can't remember why they go (early onset again), and of course it's kind of fundamental to the book that they do, otherwise it would be: "Anna and the gang nearly went off and lived in an isolated place which brought all sorts of tensions to the fore, but they didn't. The end."

Most people in most books and indeed life, don't have to do stuff - but then there would be no story...

Hullygully · 22/05/2012 11:49

Bathsheba thought Troy was a bit of a twat showing off with his sword. So she married Gabriel. The end.

Ishoes · 22/05/2012 12:44

I thought this was a very good idea for a book but my god the characters were all so unlikeable-I wanted to strangle them all!! I wished there had been far more on the story of the dead baby and a lot less of the harassed mother-she was a pain in the tits frankly.

lumbago · 22/05/2012 15:48

Lol at pain in tits. Agree. Having one kid and hating it is fine. Two - bloody idiocy

Flightty · 22/05/2012 19:54

I didn't really find my first child that easy...so I had a second and everything made sense.

Original poster
TillyBookClub · 23/05/2012 12:56

Its like following a AIBU thread - I keep forgetting Anna isn't actually real..

I definitely had moments of 'what are you doing, woman' at the beginning, but I was more sympathetic later in the book when Zoe talks about how her mother oversaw her every move, and parented in a way that was so overcontrolled it squeezed the fun out of life. And then Anna's haphazardness seems more human and less damaging. I sort of see Anna at a particular crisis point, and imagine that she might pull it together a bit (and get rid of the making bread martyrdom and buy a shed load of frozen sliced white) once she's out the other side.

Hully, love the idea of Classics Rewritten with Common Sense. Can we start a thread?

And a reminder to put all your questions here please - I'll be sending to the author beginning of next week.

Already shaping up to be a very interesting chat, I feel...

OP posts:
Ishoes · 23/05/2012 14:10

Okay a question-anna avoids sex with giles but when she finally concedes on a quid pro quo basis she muses it was good sex and this is one of the reasons they are still together-

so do you personally really believe that good sex can make up for a husband being a useless twunt?

Thanks.

Flightty · 23/05/2012 16:15

oh goodness definitely. Just my opinion!

lumbago · 23/05/2012 17:54

i bet the H has long nails

shudder

Blatherskite · 24/05/2012 09:57

I'm going to have to stop reading this thread until I've finished the book. Far too many spoilers being given away Sad

ProfCoxWouldGetIt · 24/05/2012 11:35

I've almost finished the book but i agree with some of the other posters on here, it's so nice to read a book where someone seems to have the same "slips in parenting" that I've experienced. Makes me feel like I'm a lot more human. Thankfully DP is the parenting god so while it makes me feel even more guilty at my inability to be a good parent, at least I know she's getting one amazing parent.

I do wonder if Sarah is a MumsNetter - it seems far too real for her not to be

hoochymama1 · 24/05/2012 17:27

Oh, I just got this out of the library, and I cannot put it down, I am savouring every word. I liked Cold Earth too, though I found the ending a bit contrived. She writes so honestly about having young children, and the sheer mind numbing quality of it all.

Teaddict · 24/05/2012 20:56

Omg this book is so depressingly close to the bone wrt my situation being at home with little ones I almost had to stop reading it... However I'm totally gripped now and loving it. Will think of an intelligent question if I could only get a bit more sleep...

Teaddict · 24/05/2012 21:00

And I don't think you have to be a MN'r to make these observations about motherhood etc, it's just the circle of life (Simba)

Teaddict · 26/05/2012 12:00

Hi Sarah, am really enjoying your book, keep sneaking a read whilst cbeebies is on cos I can't wait till bedtime! I've just watched your Fiction Uncovered interview on YouTube so I know why you went into Fiction instead of/as well as academic writing but I'm so impressed you managed to have lucid thoughts and ideas whilst on maternity leave! I too am frustrated with Anna in the book - come on love, get it together - but can totally empathise, like most women on here, it's all so true to life and amazingly observed.

Here's my question for you - My nickname is Teaddict because I found that the uplift and comfort I got/get from a cup of tea really helped me through the dark days of a new Mum's sleeplessness and boredom, like a little hug in a mug. What do you think got you through those times? Was it the idea of writing novels, the thought of returning to academia?

NoraHelmer · 27/05/2012 08:58

I finished reading Night Waking last night. I found the comparison between the different parenting styles in the novel was interesting - in the present day between Anna and Judith and in the past comparing Anna with Mrs Buchan and Mrs Grice.

I saw Anna as a modern mother struggling with many roles and not having enough time for any of them. Compare with Judith who had too much time so "helicoptered" Zoe, who felt stifled, whereas Anna's children had the opportunity to be themselves (I didn't see that as neglect at all). Was she any worse than Mrs Buchan who let a school child she barely knew take her baby out for a walk whilst she went for a rest? We were also shown how the child Mary Homerton was emotionally damaged by her relationship with her mother.

My question to Sarah Moss, therefore, is did you intend for your novel to portray different attitudes towards parenting? I thought the inclusion of quotations from Anna Freud at the start of the chapters was quite telling. Was it also a coincidence that Anna shared her name?

juneau · 27/05/2012 20:12

I love this line:

'In practice cooking means that you can hide in the kitchen wielding knives and listening to Radio Four and still be a Good Mummy'

... and I thought it was just me LOL!

juneau · 27/05/2012 20:17

Giles reminds me of my husband in his ability to a) just wander off and do whatever he wants to do without a backward glance, and b) to criticise Anna when he's left her to do everything. I agree she makes a complete hash of the housework - I COULD NOT live in such a pigsty and I don't understand her making bread when she can't manage to do far more important stuff, but I do understand the losing it momentarily and swearing. I'm ashamed to say I've done that myself on (thank God, rare), occasions. My DH had no empathy either.

ProfCoxWouldGetIt · 29/05/2012 08:11

Just finished reading it this morning on the train, and I really enjoyed the book, it was great to see a working mum's struggle between being a good mum and being an individual with her own mind and career asperations - although I will admit I still don't know if it's something that is actually possible.

I can't help wonder if the slightly abrupt ending was due to a sequel being mind or if Sarah wanted to leave the story open for us to decide where is went from there.

My question to Sarah is, have you ever had moments like Anna, when you'd happily run off and leave your kids and family behind, while I believe we all love our children, it's sometimes really hard to find yourself after having children.

Thanks for a great read.

libelulle · 29/05/2012 09:54

Hello Sarah,

I read this book when it came out and I've never been so simultaneously delighted and freaked out by a book. In almost every detail, Anna is me. Enough so that it would pretty much make me googlable if I wrote down the exact parallels! Quite a disconcerting read, I must say.

If you can write a sequel, that'd be supremely helpful, as I still have no idea what to do next with two small children and the ruins of an academic career.

Anyhow, I loved it. Brilliantly plotted and written! Thank you.

Original poster
TillyBookClub · 29/05/2012 11:21

Thanks to everyone for their questions - I've passed on to Sarah and we'll kick off with those on Wednesday night. Do keep 'em coming too.

See you Wednesday, 9pm sharp...

OP posts:
Bella30 · 29/05/2012 15:09

Just finished my free MN copy! I really enjoyed this - I'm new to this motherhood lark, but even just a few weeks in I felt that the portrayal of Anna's situation really rang true especially the focus on mundane domestic details and how tedious it can be, plus trying to find the space to think or produce anything not child/house related. Giles drove me up the wall though - so blind to the fact that his wife just isn't coping, and her need for intellectual space as well as his. My question for Sarah would be, at what stage did you decide on the setting for the story? The isolation of life on the island seems to mirror Anna's own mental isolation - from other adults and from her academic career - was the setting a deliberate choice to reflect this?