Linea Nigra, by Jazmina Barrera

The Mexican writer follows her acclaimed English-language debut, On Lighthouses, with a long essay on pregnancy. This important work of testimony deftly blends powerful cultural criticism--tracing the roles of pregnancy in the history of humanity--with the even more striking details of Barrera's own experience carrying a child, giving birth, and beginning to raise a son. Told in fragmentary paragraphs, this vivid work of history, imagination, and memoir evokes the full range of joys and anxieties related to motherhood.