A New Yorker New Statesman and Daily Mail BOOK OF THE YEARLonglisted for the 2024 Womens Prize for NonFictionThe best book Ive ever read about motherhood Jude Rogers ObserverI kept scribbling in the margins We need to know this stuff Joanna Pocock SpectatorA radical new examination of the transition into motherhood and how it affects the mind brain and bodyDuring pregnancy childbirth and early motherhood women undergo a farreaching physiological psychological and social metamorphosis.There is no other time in a humans life course that entails such dramatic changeother than adolescence. And yet this lifealtering transition has been sorely neglected by science medicine and philosophy. Its seismic effects go largely unrepresented across literature and the arts. Speaking about motherhood as anything other than a pastelhued dream remains for the most part taboo.In this groundbreaking deeply personal investigation acclaimed journalist and author Lucy Jones brings to light the emerging concept of matrescence. Drawing on new research across various fields neuroscience and evolutionary biology psychoanalysis and existential therapy sociology economics and ecology Jones shows how the changes in the maternal mind brain and body are far more profound wild and enduring than we have been led to believe. She reveals the dangerous consequences of our neglect of the maternal experience and interrogates the patriarchal and capitalist systems that have created the untenable situation mothers face today.Here is an urgent examination of the modern institution of motherhood which seeks to unshackle all parents from oppressive social norms. As it deepens our understanding of matrescence it raises vital questions about motherhood and femininity interdependence and individual identity as well as about our relationships with each other and the living world.