And Now We Have Everything: On Motherhood Before I Was Ready

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*One of the most anticipated books of 2018 *-- Esquire, Elle, Nylon, Huffington Post, The Boston Globe, The Rumpus, GoodReads, The Millions, BookRiot, Bustle, The Week."Smart, funny, and true in all the best ways, this book made me ache with recognition." -- Cheryl StrayedA raw, funny, and fiercely honest account of becoming a mother before feeling like a grown up.**** When Meaghan O'Connell got accidentally pregnant in her twenties and decided to keep the baby, she realized that the book she needed -- a brutally honest, agenda-free reckoning with the emotional and existential impact of motherhood -- didn't exist. So she decided to write it herself.And Now We Have Everything is O'Connell's exploration of the cataclysmic, impossible-to-prepare-for experience of becoming a mother. With her dark humor and hair-trigger B.S. detector, O'Connell addresses the pervasive imposter syndrome that comes with unplanned pregnancy, the fantasies of a "natural" birth experience that erode maternal self-esteem, post-partum body and sex issues, and the fascinating strangeness of stepping into a new, not-yet-comfortable identity. Channeling fears and anxieties that are still taboo and often unspoken, And Now We Have Everything is an unflinchingly frank, funny, and visceral motherhood story for our times, about having a baby and staying, for better or worse, exactly yourself. **Review"Meaghan O'Connell writes with bracing clarity about the milk-soaked days of pregnancy and early parenthood, and I (truly) laughed and cried reading her account of crossing the great human divide. The biggest compliment of all: I used several hours of daylight childcare hours reading this book, just because I didn't want to put it down."―Emma Straub, New York Times bestselling author of Modern Lovers** "Smart, funny, and true in all the best ways, this book made me ache with recognition of what it felt like to be a new mom (and a human)."*―Cheryl Strayed*** "A stunningly insightful book."―Lydia Kiesling, The Millions** "The harrowing, hilarious, totally honest account of parenthood we've all been waiting for. O'Connell's story is compulsively readable for parents and non-parents alike, as much about being young and unprepared for life as bringing another human into this chaotic world."―Sarah Gerard, author of Sunshine State** "As someone who hopes to have kids someday, but has no idea what that might mean, reading this book felt like getting the first honest glimpse into that world after a lifetime of clichés."―Julie Buntin, author of Marlena** "As any parent knows, having a child is akin to detonating a tiny bomb in the middle of your otherwise wonderful life. O'Connell is fearless when negotiating the mess and magic of such difficult terrain, the place where fantasy goes to die and a genuine adult must rise in its stead (and function perfectly on no sleep). And Now We Have Everything is like the very best conversations, the ones you have in lowered tones at the back of a smoky bar with a trusted friend-funny, dark, and threaded with just the right amount of hope."―Cynthia D'Aprix Sweeney, New York Times bestselling author of The Nest** "It's impossible to praise this book without realizing how the words we use to describe prose often originate in the words we use to describe the experiences of the body: laid bare, warm, ecstatic, brutal. And Now We Have Everything is a stark reminder of the beating, breakable hearts of the world's mothers."―Alana Massey, author of All the Lives I Want** "Meaghan O'Connell's writing has meant everything to me as I've navigated the identity-warping maze of early motherhood. She is the most honest, funny, gifted, natural storyteller, and she shares her experiences generously and unsparingly, in a way that I hope will give her readers permission to feel all kinds of different ways about their own experiences, without shame, without self-hate, without regret, and without fear."―Emily Gould, author of Friendship** "For every What to Expect When You're Expecting (and its ilk), there should be a What to Expect When You Weren't Expecting. But, strangely, there isn't, so Meaghan O'Connell has committed her experience of accidental pregnancy and motherhood to the page."―*Elle* "I began And Now We Have Everything on a Friday evening and was finished with it by Saturday afternoon--and that was with house guests to entertain and two children to keep alive! Meaghan O'Connell's honesty, humor, vulnerability, and willingness to explore motherhood in all of its messy complexities made me feel understood in a way few books do. I never wanted it to end. A necessary, brilliant debut."―Edan Lepucki, New York Times bestselling author of California and Woman No. 17**About the Author



















Meaghan O'Connell's writing has appeared in New York Magazine, Longreads, and The Billfold, where she was an editor. She lives in Portland, OR, with her husband and young son.