Soldier Sailor
Synopsis
When Soldier gives birth to her son Sailor, she is thrust into the chaotic world of motherhood and its endless clamor - sleepless nights, temper tantrums, and paralyzing physical and mental isolation. In addition to her postpartum depression, which nearly causes her to abandon her child, her workaholic husband is largely absent, leaving her to carry out the necessary childcare alone.
Review
Told in stream-of-consciousness-style letters from mother to son, Claire Kilroy reveals a profound truth about the bleakest parts of our interior selves, the sacrifices women make for their families, and reckoning with the fact that someday, your child won’t need you anymore. This book is bittersweet and soul-wrenching with stunningly poetic prose - a remorseless portrait of how it feels to leave girlhood behind.
Dublin-based writer Claire Kilroy has authored five other novels, including All Summer, the recipient of the 2004 Rooney Prize for outstanding Irish literature. According to an interview with the Women’s Prize Trust, Soldier, Sailor seeks to reveal “the secret life of that woman you see plodding around with a pram.”