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Black Milk

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Black Milk

By: Elif Shafak, Hande Zapsu
Narrated by: Alix Dunmore
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Summary

After the birth of her first child in 2006, Turkish writer Elif Shafak suffered from postpartum depression that triggered a profound personal crisis. Infused with guilt, anxiety and bewilderment about whether she could ever be a good mother, Shafak stopped writing and lost her faith in words altogether.

In this elegantly written memoir, she retraces her journey from free-spirited, nomadic artist to dedicated but emotionally wrought mother. Identifying a constantly bickering harem of women who live inside of her – the cynical intellectual, the goal-oriented go-getter, the practical-rational, the spiritual, the maternal and the lustful – she craves harmony, or at least a unifying identity. As she intersperses her own experience with the lives of prominent authors such as Sylvia Plath, Virginia Woolf, Alice Walker, Ayn Rand and Zelda Fitzgerald, Shafak looks for a solution to the inherent conflict between artistic creation and responsible parenting.

With searing emotional honesty, Shafak has rendered an important work about literature, motherhood and spiritual wellbeing.

©2007 Elif Shafak (P)2026 Bolinda Publishing Art & Literature Authors Mental Health Mood Disorders Motherhood Parenting & Families Personal Development Psychology Psychology & Mental Health Relationships Emotions

Critic Reviews

'Black Milk is a book to dip into, to lend around, a book that you feel deserves to be read by all women attempting to draw together so many differing aspirations.' (Le Magazine)
'Beautifully rendered, Shafak's Black Milk is an epic poem to women everywhere.' (Colleen Mondor, author of The Map of My Dead Pilots: The Dangerous Game of Flying in Alaska)
All stars
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Always great listening to one of Elifs books. Recommend the whole catalog. Great audio performances as well

The finger women are hilarious

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