IMPERFECT BODIES

When Ali learns that she is expecting a child with a rare genetic condition, her world is shaken up. Doctors tell her that the baby will not even survive pregnancy but, against all odds, Carys is born, overcoming all of the doctors' predictions and going on living. After 20 years of caring for Carys, Ali shares her journey as a mother of a girl who challenges common notions of 'normality' in medicine, society, and politics.Exploring social and political definitions of normality, Ali reflects on motherhood, identity, the female body, the able and dis-abled body. This memoir also delves into the experience of pregnancy, and the ways in which the female body becomes a public topic of discussion. The limits of child care policies are also scrutinized in this impressive journey. Central to the narrative are the following questions: is my body imperfect for conceiving a baby with a genetic disorder? Is my daughter's body imperfect?For readers of Claire Kilroy, Anne Enright, Deborah Levy.