Welcome to Your New Life (Anna Goldsworthy, Black Inc.)

Having recently read Anna Goldsworthy’s celebrated first memoir Piano Lessons, I jumped at the chance to review her second, given how much her honest authorial voice and eloquent turn of phrase had impressed me. Welcome to Your New Life is written to Goldsworthy’s son and joins a growing number of motherhood and parenting memoirs. While Goldsworthy relates some fairly common experiences as part of her induction into the world of pregnancy, birth and infant-raising (birth plans, driving home with baby, the shock when it hits home, breastfeeding problems, sleeplessness, beginning childcare), this book’s value lies in its telling, and in Goldsworthy’s own quirky personality. Sudden anxiety in new parents is nothing new but Goldsworthy fearlessly recounts her obsessions. The section on her irrational fear of losing her non-mobile newborn down a composting toilet is a gem. It’s warm, funny and candid. She shares her love of language with her infant son and beautifully captures the bond between parent and child. I love the way Goldsworthy uses words and felt honoured to witness the private magic and joy as her son changed her world. (Read the interview here.)

Joanne Shiells is an editor, former bookseller and parent of two

Books+Publishing pre-publication reviews are supported by the Copyright Agency Cultural Fund.

Category: Reviews