Fledging

It starts as bloating, a hard curvature in my gut that won’t go away. I wonder if it’s my period, but it isn’t the right time. The cramps come slowly at first, like a rising tide, and then grow shorter and sharper, a racing heartbeat.

When Lia lays an egg she doesn’t know what to do. At her age, it’s impossible to escape the baby question, and all her friends seem to be having children. She feels her heart’s not in it - but all the same, there’s the egg, impossible to ignore, lying in a nest of towels in the living room.

Her partner on tour on the other side of the world and her mother diagnosed with a terminal illness, Lia finds herself torn, unsure whether she’s ready to give up on her songwriting dreams; but time is running out, and she must make one of the biggest decisions of her life.

Beautifully written and brilliantly original, Fledging is a riveting tale that asks what it is to lead a meaningful life, and sounds a resounding call for women to make their own choices, whether that means embracing motherhood or living child-free.

Praise for Fledging:

’Wildly unsettling... I really enjoyed this razor-sharp look at womanhood and potential motherhood.’

Laura Pearson, author of The Last List of Mabel Beaumont

’A wonderful new voice to fall in love with.’

Farrah Storr

’An original braiding of fantasy, whimsy, tortured dark nights of the soul, and slapstick...’

Merle Bombardieri, author of The Baby Decision

’Perfectly captures the conflicting feelings that accompany the decision about whether to have a child, while offering a poignant look at what is ending - and potentially beginning - for those who choose not to reproduce.’

Ruby Warrington, author of Women Without Kids

’Rose Diell gifts us with a wildly original story, a curious reproductive mystery, and a main character whose delightful and relatable voice hooked me from page one.’

Therese Shechter, director of My So-Called Selfish Life

’Fledging is a book which feels like it hatches as you read it: smart, surprising and wonderfully thought-provoking. Like a bizarre, brilliant cross of Featherhood and Grief is the Thing with Feathers.’

Bobby Palmer, author of Isaac and the Egg