Little Darlings

Set in Sheffield in the present day, Lauren’s hopes and dreams of being a new mum are shattered when she encounters a mother’s worst nightmare – someone is threatening to take her children if she leaves them alone. From the stark loneliness of returning home after birth, to the confines of a psychiatric unit, Lauren’s desperation increases as no one will listen to her. Is she mad, or does she know something we don’t?
With echoes of Maggie O’Farrell, Emma Flint and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s The Yellow Wallpaper, Melanie Golding’s Little Darlings will spark debate among readers, exploring themes that are common to many of us.
Loosely inspired by the ghostly folktale The Brewery of Eggshells, where a mother becomes convinced her twins are not her own, Little Darlings offers a fresh perspective on modern motherhood and postnatal depression. It has recently been reported that 50% of women – the ‘hidden half’ – suffer psychological problems following birth and are never given the help or support they need. It has always been thus: Folk tales do not spring from whimsy; they warn us and teach us, and speak to the fear in us all…

Ficção / Literatura Estrangeira