‘raw content is a work of dark, aching beauty’ HELEN JUKES
‘A stunning mix of horror and tenderness, love and despair. It’s rare to see such a raw and real account of early motherhood’ KIRSTY LOGAN
‘No other novel has explored the terrifying and joyful transformations of parenthood with such dazzling power’ ABI CURTIS
‘Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are the ghosts that haunt Grace’s youth, but it is the land itself that remains pregnant with dread, the empty mills and the rushing rivers both poignant and alive’ HEATHER PARRY
‘The landscape of Yorkshire is beautifully depicted’ NB Magazine
‘An unervingly honest and uncensored account of the claustrophobic intensity of new motherhood . . . a rare gift’ Yorkshire Life
‘In this small but powerful novel a harsh and haunted Northern landscape mirrors the fears and fragilities of a new mother as she gradually discovers new ways of living – and of loving’ ALICE JOLLY
‘This insightful and beautiful book turned me inside out’ PRAGYA AGARWAL
When Grace becomes unexpectedly pregnant, the rush of excitement and fear that she experiences is like joyriding again. Grace welcomes a partner and baby into her life, but after the euphoria of giving birth, she is overwhelmed by terrifying visions. The awesome beauty and dark history of Grace’s childhood in Yorkshire moorland re-surface; she lives in terror of her baby’s vulnerability and of her own capacity for violence.
Grace’s father is a police officer haunted by an infamous case; her sister arrives with her own damaged and exuberant chaos. Learning how to mother forces Grace to revisit all her most intimate relationships – including with her own mother; it transforms how she understands her place in the world; and it ushers in new forms of care that become sources of revelation.
Tender, vivid and brave, raw content explores the most unsettling and taboo experiences of mothering with illuminating power.
‘A stunning mix of horror and tenderness, love and despair. It’s rare to see such a raw and real account of early motherhood’ KIRSTY LOGAN
‘No other novel has explored the terrifying and joyful transformations of parenthood with such dazzling power’ ABI CURTIS
‘Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are the ghosts that haunt Grace’s youth, but it is the land itself that remains pregnant with dread, the empty mills and the rushing rivers both poignant and alive’ HEATHER PARRY
‘The landscape of Yorkshire is beautifully depicted’ NB Magazine
‘An unervingly honest and uncensored account of the claustrophobic intensity of new motherhood . . . a rare gift’ Yorkshire Life
‘In this small but powerful novel a harsh and haunted Northern landscape mirrors the fears and fragilities of a new mother as she gradually discovers new ways of living – and of loving’ ALICE JOLLY
‘This insightful and beautiful book turned me inside out’ PRAGYA AGARWAL
When Grace becomes unexpectedly pregnant, the rush of excitement and fear that she experiences is like joyriding again. Grace welcomes a partner and baby into her life, but after the euphoria of giving birth, she is overwhelmed by terrifying visions. The awesome beauty and dark history of Grace’s childhood in Yorkshire moorland re-surface; she lives in terror of her baby’s vulnerability and of her own capacity for violence.
Grace’s father is a police officer haunted by an infamous case; her sister arrives with her own damaged and exuberant chaos. Learning how to mother forces Grace to revisit all her most intimate relationships – including with her own mother; it transforms how she understands her place in the world; and it ushers in new forms of care that become sources of revelation.
Tender, vivid and brave, raw content explores the most unsettling and taboo experiences of mothering with illuminating power.
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Reviews
An utterly remarkable book. Brave, bracing, terrible and true. I wish I could have read it in my own first year of motherhood
I have loved Naomi Booth's work for a long time. In her brilliant new novel, raw content, Peter Sutcliffe, Ian Brady and Myra Hindley are the ghosts that haunt Grace's youth, but it is the land itself that remains pregnant with dread, the empty mills and the rushing rivers both poignant and alive
In this small but powerful novel a harsh and haunted Northern landscape mirrors the fears and fragilities of a new mother as she gradually discovers new ways of living - and of loving
This insightful and beautiful book turned me inside out
'An exquisite portrait of mental unravelling, with beauty amidst banality, darkness and chaos . . . Lightness, violence, comedy, brutality, tenderness - all are held in balance'
'Beautifully written, honest and gritty'
'A brooding and bruising psychodrama about the anxieties of 21st century motherhood, linking the primal potency of the female body with the bleak northern landscape's terrible beauty'
An unnervingly honest and uncensored account of the claustrophobic intensity of new motherhood . . . a rare gift . . . As dark as Grace's experience is, this is a story of love, hope and ultimately great joy
'raw content is a work of dark, aching beauty. This is the side of new motherhood we're still learning to speak: violent, tender, clarified - and ringing with determination and love. No one writes about landscape and the body the way that Booth does, and no one captures the strange lines of connection that run between them with such visceral precision. Brimming with Booth's love of language and literature, and her irrevocable knack for revealing us to ourselves'
'Raw Content is a beautiful and thought-provoking story of post-natal mental health, violence, paranoia and unconditional love in all it's forms... and the landscape of Yorkshire is beautifully depicted weaving a thread through the narrative. Another five-star read from Naomi Booth'
A brooding and bruising psychodrama about the anxieties of 21st century motherhood, that links the primal potency of the female body with the northern landscape's elemental power
A stunning mix of horror and tenderness, love and despair. It's rare to see such a raw and real account of early motherhood
'raw content is contemporary fiction at its most welcoming and shattering. Barbed and brave . . . Booth produces fractals of regional and familial peril and paranoia. Yet this book remains generous, compassionate [and] so acutely observed'
'A luminous and visceral novel about new motherhood. Booth skillfully portrays a young woman's unravelling against the backdrop of a grittily beautiful Yorkshire landscape. No other novel has explored the terrifying and joyful transformations of parenthood with such dazzling power'