Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy

Winner of the Saltire Society First Book of the Year, 2016.

A cartoon fried egg. An eye. The tiniest of black holes. It needed a professional eye to be seen, but once pointed out it was undeniable. My own little Big Bang. The beginning of it all. When Chitra Ramaswamy discovered she was pregnant, she longed for a book that went above and beyond a biology book or manual; one that, instead, got to the very heart of this overwhelming, confusing and exciting experience. So, she wrote Expecting. This updated edition of Ramaswamy’s memoir tells a different kind of truth, taking the reader on a physical, emotional and philosophical odyssey through pregnancy. Childbearing and childbirth are experiences defined both by the measurable changes to one’s life and body, and by those changes which can only be accessed through metaphor, art and emotion. Ramaswamy holds these two sides up to the light in this deeply personal yet expansive book. Exploring each of the nine months of Chitra’s pregnancy, Expecting is a book of intimate, strange, wild and lyrical essays that pay tribute to this most extraordinary and ordinary of experiences.

Reviews of Expecting: The Inner Life of Pregnancy

"Chitra Ramaswamy is one of freshest new voices in British journalism, with a fine eye for detail and tone. She's one of the warmest writers on modern British family life." – Will Dean, The Guardian.

“Immediately, poignantly, gripping… magnificent.” – Zoe Williams, Guardian.

"Like spending time with a particularly wise and funny friend. She brings clarity of thought and expression to the human condition in all its messy complexity. Writing of great insight, humour and emotional intelligence." – Kenny Farquharson, the Times.