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Black Milk

Black Milk

On Motherhood and Writing

Summary

Postnatal depression affects millions of new mothers every year, and - like most of its victims- Elif Shafak never expected to be one of them

But after the birth of her first child in 2006, the internationally bestselling Turkish author remembers how, "for the first time my adult life... words wouldn't speak to me".

As her despair finally eased, Shafak sought to resuscitate her writing life by chronicling her own experiences

In her intimate memoir, she reveals how she struggled to overcome her depression and how literature provided the salvation she so desperately needed

About the author

Elif Shafak

Elif Shafak is an award-winning British Turkish novelist, whose work has been translated into fifty-six languages. The author of nineteen books, twelve of which are novels, she is a bestselling author in many countries around the world. Shafak's last novel, The Island of Missing Trees, was a top ten Sunday Times bestseller, and was shortlisted for the Costa Novel Award and the Women's Prize for Fiction. Her novel 10 Minutes 38 Seconds in This Strange World was shortlisted for the Booker Prize and the RSL Ondaatje Prize. There Are Rivers in the Sky is her latest novel.
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