Author(s): Margaret Drabble

Fiction

Jessica Speight, a young anthropology student in 1960s London, is at the beginning of a promising academic career when an affair with her married professor turns her into a single mother. Anna is a pure gold baby with a delightful sunny nature. But as it becomes clear that Anna will not be a normal child, the book circles questions of responsibility, potential, even age, with Margaret Drabble’s characteristic intelligence, sympathy, and wit. Told from the point of view of the group of mothers who surround Jess, The Pure Gold Baby is a brilliant, prismatic novel brimming with satiric verve, trenchant commentary, and a movingly intimate story of the unexpected transformations at the heart of motherhood.