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A review by faysieh
The Swap by Fiona Mitchell
4.0
I loved this book for the ethical dilemmas the subject raises. Just what is the protocol for coming to terms with knowing the baby you had artificially inseminated wasn't from your own egg and husband's sperm because the embryos were mixed up? How would you feel carrying a baby and giving birth to a child who is not genetically yours? And how would you feel if you didn't know until your children was about 4 years of age and you found out by accident?
This book explores what it means to be a mother and the love one can feel for a child that has been raised by someone else entirely. It also explores the chance of family and the opportunities and lifestyle we enjoy or don't have access to given who are parents are and the circumstances in which they live. In this way the book also explores the concept of class. The storyline had me gripped. The obsession and tug of love, the desire to spend time with your biological child and yet at the same time not want to let go of the child you carried, gave birth to and have raised, made this an enthralling read. At times it was uncomfortable too because one mother doesn't actually love the child she has been raising and she also has a huge emotional crack in her heart, but why?
This is taut storytelling, a highwire balancing act of a read whereby if any of the characters take the wrong step the consequences could be fatal.
This book explores what it means to be a mother and the love one can feel for a child that has been raised by someone else entirely. It also explores the chance of family and the opportunities and lifestyle we enjoy or don't have access to given who are parents are and the circumstances in which they live. In this way the book also explores the concept of class. The storyline had me gripped. The obsession and tug of love, the desire to spend time with your biological child and yet at the same time not want to let go of the child you carried, gave birth to and have raised, made this an enthralling read. At times it was uncomfortable too because one mother doesn't actually love the child she has been raising and she also has a huge emotional crack in her heart, but why?
This is taut storytelling, a highwire balancing act of a read whereby if any of the characters take the wrong step the consequences could be fatal.