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My Wild and Sleepless Nights

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My Wild and Sleepless Nights

By: Clover Stroud
Narrated by: Clover Stroud
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

Mother to five children, Clover Stroud has navigated family life across two decades, both losing and finding herself. In her touching, provocative and profoundly insightful book, she captures a sense of what motherhood really feels like – how intense, sensuous, joyful, boring, profound and dark it can be.

My Wild and Sleepless Nights examines what it means to be a mother, and reveals with unflinching honesty the many conflicting emotions that this entails: the joy and the wonder, the loneliness and despair.

Charting the course of one year, the first in her youngest child’s life, Clover searches for answers to questions that many of us would be too afraid to admit to – not only about motherhood, but also about female sexuality and identity. Her story will speak to all mothers, and anyone about to embark on that journey.

'Clover Stroud is a remarkable woman, and an incredible writer.' - Bryony Gordon
‘Clover Stroud is a force of nature.’ Elizabeth Gilbert

© Clover Stroud 2020 (P) Penguin Audio 2020

 Gender Studies Parenting & Families Relationships Social Sciences Thought-Provoking

Critic reviews

A beautifully written, brutally honest dissection of motherhood by a woman who has five children, from pregnancy to teenagers, covering both the extreme highs and lows. Stroud's writing examines what it is to be a woman with the same sensitive skill fans of her first memoir, The Wild Other, will recall.
The best evocation of the all-consuming, self-eroding reality of motherhood, while also being luminous with love.
What does being a mother really feel like? Clover Stroud’s powerhouse of a memoir gets closer than anything else I have read to answering that question. The motherhood she describes is the very antithesis of the sanitised, smiling vision we are sold in washing powder ads... She excels in evoking the feral, instinctive forces that motherhood unleashes... This is a vision of motherhood for the (now middle-aged) MDMA generation... The reader is simply swept up in her painful, wonderful world. Buy it, read it, and enjoy it for the wild ride it is.
Clover Stroud's brilliantly unvarnished memoir finds the heroism and poetry in having kids ... Much of this book ..reads like a nature memoir, full of landscape both external and internal ... How brilliant for someone to write about the blankness as well as the beauty. (Nell Frizzell)
This is quite simply the best book about motherhood I have ever read: touching, tender, honest and true. Even as she’s bracingly direct about the frustrations of motherhood, Stroud also revels in the delights. Bliss and boredom coexist side by side — and the contradictions are at the core of it all. Stroud’s book will give anyone heading out on this fearsome journey a lantern to guide the way. The book is not always pretty, and sometimes its directness is shocking, but it is full of love and honesty.
Brilliant motherhood memoir...Clover Stroud is one of the very best writers on the light and dark of motherhood and, if you enjoyed her debut The Wild Other, you'll love this. The book follows the first year of her fifth child's life as she juggles looking after a newborn with dealing with her teenage son's problematic behaviour. The writing is sublime and honest.
Best Books of 2020: a touching guide to the joys and terrors of parenting.
A visceral story of pregnancy and domestic mayhem...[full of] raw primal maternal energy. (Libby Purves)
BEST NON-FICTION OF 2020: Clover Stroud charts the highs and lows of motherhood in all their deep, dark glory. (Sarra Manning)
Rare are the books about motherhood, rarer still; the true, the generous, tender, resonant ones. This is that book. I loved it and I love Clover’s voice.
All stars
Most relevant
Clover writes how we feel as mothers out loud with no shame or fluff. Wether you have one child or five motherhood can be at times overwhelming, but also full of joy,

A honest, candid look inside true motherhood

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Clover Stroud writes beautifully on motherhood, family and the relationships within. I literally could not put this book down and finished it in two days flat. It is an honest and frank account, bravely written by a captivating writer. I am now looking forward to reading The Wild Other.

A brave, beautifully written and honest account of being a mother.

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Amazing true to life insight to family life. Narrator not great though, a bit dull.

Very insightful story

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Clover Stroud talks about motherhood in a way that makes me want to shout YES out loud. Nits, permission slips, ears for world book day costume all wrapped up in exhausted and deep love for her children. Honest, funny and so, so relatable.

Un”unpluggable”

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Well what can I say? This book is beautifully written, tender, honest about the highs and lows of motherhood. Clover is a mum of 5 children, she speaks openly about her feelings, the feeling we feel as a mum, but are too scared to speak out about. Second book from Clover, who an exceptional writer, very talented with words and is compelling honest. This book is a rare book that makes you feel normal. Thank you Clover !!

Simply best book about motherhood

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