An extraordinary memoir of anticipatory grief, seventy-two minutes of life and a silent maternity leave, from artist and academic Tamarin Norwood.
A few months into pregnancy, Tamarin Norwood learned that the baby she was carrying would not live. Over the sleepless weeks that followed, Tamarin, her husband and their three-year-old son tried to navigate the unfamiliar waters of anticipatory sorrow and to prepare for what was to come.
Written partly during pregnancy and partly during the silent maternity leave that followed, The Song of the Whole Wide World is an emergency response to grief held somewhere between the womb, the grave and the many stories that bind them: stories drawn from medical science, poetry, liturgy, vivid waking dreams of underwater life, and knowledge held deep within the body.
This profoundly moving and intimate account offers a lyrical and fearless meditation on birth, death, and the possibilities of consolation.
Praise
‘A heartbreaking new book.’
— The Sunday Times Style
‘A gut-wrenching tale of motherhood and loss, its sentences so pure and precise in their grief that the force of them verges on the sublime.’
— Rhiannon Lucy Cosslett, The Guardian
‘A moving account of a doomed pregnancy . . . Arresting and lyrical.’
— Times Literary Supplement
‘Norwood’s book is a testimony to the power of creative writing for health care.’
— The Lancet
‘An extraordinary work of lyrical prose.’
— Julia Bueno, author of The Brink of Being
‘A piercingly beautiful book of rare emotional precision, which urges us all to love bravely. This book changed me. I couldn’t put it down.’
— Anna Beecher, author of Here Comes the Miracle
‘Hypnotic, mesmerising, devastating. A portrait of what it is to be human when confronted with the unimaginable. It is about life and death and love. So much love. It is about the minutiae yet also the existential. Blown away. Out of such tragedy has come something so beautiful.’
— Marisa Bate, author of Wild Hope
‘Gabriel’s story is a jewel, hewn by Tamarin’s hand from the deep reef of human sorrow. Read it, and weep with compassion as she tells of her journey to the furthermost reaches of maternal grief.’
— John Boulton, Emeritus Professor of Paediatrics at the University of Newcastle NSW Australia, and Honorary Professor at the University of Sydney
‘Visceral and meticulous, Norwood’s account is an astonishing and unflinching act of remembrance and love.’
— Carys Bray, author of When the Lights Go Out and The Museum of You
‘What an incredible book. I don’t think I have ever read anything so delicate – every placement of every word is perfect.’
— Lucy Easthope, author of When the Dust Settles: Searching for Hope after Disaster and The Recovery Myth: The Plans and Situated Realities of Post-Disaster Response
‘A heartbreakingly brave, candid and lyrical memoir of baby loss.’
— Leah Hazard, author of Womb: The Inside Story of Where We All Began and Hard Pushed: A Midwife’s Story
‘The Song of the Whole Wide World is a tender and poetic account of unimaginable grief.’
— Alice Kinsella, author of Milk: On Motherhood and Madness
‘The Song of the Whole Wide World shimmers. Tamarin Norwood’s poetic writing is gut-wrenching and gorgeous, all at the same time. It is a story for anyone grappling with the forces of gravity of life and death, of medical decisions, and surrendering to waves of love.’
— Amy Kuebelbeck author of A Gift of Time: Continuing Your Pregnancy When Your Baby’s Life Is Expected to Be Brief
‘I’ve never read a book like The Song of the Whole Wide World. It’s a thrilling act of imagination about mothering that illuminates the body and its metaphysical matters. Tamarin Norwood’s writing shows a respect towards her son so pure that I felt both humbled and proud to witness it. I’m still reeling from the piercing pain and joy of this book. Unforgettable.’
— Gwyneth Lewis MBE, a National Poet of Wales
‘A work of great and subtle beauty. It expanded my understanding of life, death and what it means to be a mother.’
— Cathy Rentzenbrink, author of The Last Act of Love: The Story of My Brother and His Sister
‘Beautiful and undeniably – necessarily – sad.’
— Pandora Sykes, author of How Do We Know We’re Doing It Right?
‘This book took my breath away. It’s a journey of love and loss and I’m grateful for Tamarin’s gift to write and articulate so tenderly what many bereaved parents cannot.’
— Nicola Welsh, CEO of Held In Our Hearts, a charity providing baby loss counselling
‘A beautiful memoir.’
— Monica Cardenas
‘A precise and lyrical account’
— Jennie Agg
