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Award-winning author Claire Kilroy's "lyrical and incisive" (The New York Times Book Review) novel that reads with the pace of a thriller and is filled with astute and witty observations of life with a young child.
Soldier Sailor takes readers deep inside the early days of motherhood. Exploring the clash of fierce love with a seismic shift in identity, Claire Kilroy conjures the raw, tumultuous emotions of a new mother, as her marriage strains and she struggles with questions of equality, autonomy, and creativity.
Soldier Sailor is a tale of boundless love and relentless battle, a bedtime story to a son, Sailor, recounting their early years together. Spending her days in baby groups, playgrounds, and supermarkets, Soldier doesn't know who she is anymore. She hardly sees her husband, who has taken to working late most nights. A chance encounter with a former colleague feels like a lifeline to the person she used to be but can hardly remember.
Tender and harrowing, Kilroy's modern masterpiece "hums with poetry, insight, and humor...full of truths so sharp and beautiful readers will need to take a breath" (Booklist, starred review).
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Creators
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Publisher
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Release date
June 4, 2024 -
Formats
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OverDrive Listen audiobook
- ISBN: 9781797175317
- File size: 180050 KB
- Duration: 06:15:06
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Languages
- English
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Reviews
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May 27, 2024
Kilroy’s gut-wrenching latest (after The Devil I Know) finds a mother, Soldier, recounting to her son, Sailor, the first few years of his life. The action moves fluidly between past and present, mimicking the out-of-time nature of early motherhood, and the immersive prose veers from lyrical (“The world rotated beneath us and we were the world”) to brutal (when Sailor was whining at six months old, Soldier screamed at him to “Shut the fuck up”). Soldier also expresses resentment toward men, including her husband, for never having to go through childbirth (“Tell me, men: when were you last split open from the inside?”). At times it can be difficult to distinguish between what actually happened and Soldier’s dark fantasies, such as her plan to abandon Sailor as an infant—but the novel builds to a gorgeous closing soliloquy, in which Soldier lays bare the confounding and heartbreaking reality of mothering. This is worth seeking out. -
This novel, short-listed for the Woman's Book Prize, details a young mother's fatigue, frustrations, and joys at raising a trying infant who becomes a willful toddler. Simone Collins's narration benefits from her intimate and persuasive tone, as well as the lovely lilt of her Irish accent. Her performance resonates as her tone, pace, and intonation reveal the struggling mom's love. Much of the narration is addressed to "Sailor," the wailing baby, then obstinate toddler, whom Mom, the "Soldier" of the title, is raising, mostly on her own. Her husband represents the patriarchy--he goes to work early, stays late, helps little--and the couple's bickering is the soundtrack of the plot. This brief, powerful depiction of motherhood rings true and creates an immersive listening experience. A.D.M. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine
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