Pozor! Pohov! – Kilroyová Claire (2025)

The novel by the acclaimed Irish writer presents a narrative about early motherhood, capturing the complexity and challenges of this life stage with extraordinary authenticity. In an intimate monologue, a mother speaks to her son – from his birth until he turns three – opening up a world filled not only with joy but especially with exhaustion, doubts, and anxiety. Her narrative is a confession of unconditional maternal love, while also containing the mother's fears of having to answer to her adult child one day.

The main character manages the care of her child only with great physical and mental effort. She attentively and truthfully depicts the seemingly trivial 'struggles for survival' of a woman who is perpetually sleep-deprived and often has no idea why her child is crying or what is troubling it. Moreover, it seems that her husband lives in a completely different universe, providing neither help nor understanding. The author masterfully captures the daily routine with a small child, and in episodes that could perhaps lead to humorous stories, she does not abandon the serious tone, as tragedy looms in them multiple times.

Kilroy does not shy away from touching on topics that are often taboo. Her urgent novel about maternal love straddles the line between prose and lyrical...