Until I had my first child, and this is to my shame, I had little understanding of just how much mothers are hidden, their stories unspoken, even as they cross the street in plain sight.

Like grief or falling in love, becoming a mother is an experience both ordinary and transformative. You are prepared for the sleeplessness and wonder, the noise and the chaos, the pram in the hall. But the extent to which this new life can turn your inner world upside-down - nothing prepares you for that.

In this frank, funny and fearless memoir, Marianne Levy writes with heart-wrenching honesty about love and loss, rage and pain, fear and joy. She breaks the silence around the emotional turmoil that having a child can unleash and asks why motherhood is at once so venerated and so undervalued.

This is the real story of being a parent in the modern world. It is a book that mothers will be glad to have read - and that everyone else should read, too.