From New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay comes an unforgettable tale of nightmarish bureaucracy in which genetic profiling has redefined the “unfit mother.”
A trip to the library prompts one woman to question her fate in this galvanizing short story. For a woman like Hadley, deemed not acceptable to procreate, there’s only one recourse. Unlicensed for motherhood, she can alleviate her grief and frustration at a “baby library,” where a curiously endless supply of infants is available for a two-week loan. But the borrowed life that serves as a temporary balm leads to a journey of self-discovery that will forever change the direction of Hadley’s future.
Roxane Gay’s Graceful Burdens is part of Out of Line , an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
Audible narration by Samira Wiley ( The Handmaid’s Tale )
About the Author
Roxane Gay is the New York Times bestselling author of the essay collection Bad Feminist and the memoir Hunger , as well as the novel An Untamed State and the short story collection Difficult Women. She edited The Best American Short Stories 2018 , and her work has also appeared in the New York Times , American Short Fiction , Virginia Quarterly Review , and many others. She wrote World of Wakanda for Marvel Comics and is at work on several book, film, and television projects.
Description:
From New York Times bestselling author Roxane Gay comes an unforgettable tale of nightmarish bureaucracy in which genetic profiling has redefined the “unfit mother.”
A trip to the library prompts one woman to question her fate in this galvanizing short story. For a woman like Hadley, deemed not acceptable to procreate, there’s only one recourse. Unlicensed for motherhood, she can alleviate her grief and frustration at a “baby library,” where a curiously endless supply of infants is available for a two-week loan. But the borrowed life that serves as a temporary balm leads to a journey of self-discovery that will forever change the direction of Hadley’s future.
Roxane Gay’s Graceful Burdens is part of Out of Line , an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.
Audible narration by Samira Wiley ( The Handmaid’s Tale )
About the Author
Roxane Gay is the New York Times bestselling author of the essay collection Bad Feminist and the memoir Hunger , as well as the novel An Untamed State and the short story collection Difficult Women. She edited The Best American Short Stories 2018 , and her work has also appeared in the New York Times , American Short Fiction , Virginia Quarterly Review , and many others. She wrote World of Wakanda for Marvel Comics and is at work on several book, film, and television projects.