A Mother Is Born

A funny, honest, and sometimes difficult look at the experience of modern parenthood.

Basu writes candidly about having two half-Indian children under the age of two, watching as they grow to school age. With her usual lightness of touch, she tackles topics including her own struggles with postpartum depression and ongoing bouts of anxiety and panic, and undoing and redoing generational habits.

She writes about undoing and redoing generational habits and tackles everything from how to throw out the massive amounts of art her kids produce to her tactic when it comes to sibling fights (they’re allowed to hit each other once a day, she tells her daughters, so they better really think it through and use that wisely. End result: they forget to hit each other.)

More of a me-too than a how-to, Basu’s musings on motherhood will interest anyone who has ever been a parent, had a parent, been a child, or had a child.