-The best kind of book: the one you didn-t know you were craving until it appeared . . . self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it- JIA TOLENTINO-A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Bego-a G-mez Urzaiz tells the stories with such intelligence and wit and generosity- TESSA HADLEYWhen it comes to children: a man leaves, a woman abandons Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Maria Montessori, Joni Mitchell - what do these vastly different women have in common?During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Bego-a G-mez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who were able to overcome both society-s judgement and their own maternal instincts in order to leave their children. More than anything, she was fascinated by her own prejudice towards these women, so clearly tied up in a much wider cultural bias.Using famous examples including Doris Lessing, fictional ones such as Anna Karen
