This is not a book about being a new mother. It's a book about being a newborn.After her son's birth, journalist Clémentine Goldszal was struck by the fact that despite an abundance of books about motherhood, there was an incredible scarcity of literature on what a newborn child experiences. She searched in books, art, philosophy; she observed her own son. But the breakthrough came when Clémentine decided to make herself a 'fly on the wall' in the neonatal ICU of the Necker Children's Hospital in Paris for six months.At the bedside of some of the world's tiniest, freshest beings, she seeks to understand the hidden experience of newborns, our dramatic passage into the world and how much this time remains within us all. Documenting the deeply vulnerable babies brought in for treatment, and the heroic flow of caregivers attending to their needs, Newborn brings to life the beautiful fragility of our first days, giving a voice to those who cannot speak.



Born and raised in Paris, Clémentine Goldszal is a journalist, cultural critic and reporter covering literature and entertainment for ELLE and Le Monde Magazine. She has profiled figures such as Ronan Farrow, Fran Lebowitz, Graydon Carter, and, more recently, Deborah Levy. In 2020, she was appointed President of ELLE's readers' literary prize. Her work in English has appeared in Lithub, The Hollywood Reporter and Mastermind Magazine. Clémentine lives and works in Paris. Newborn is her first book.



A luminous narrative that poses questions about newborns and about the mysteries of birth. . . You've never read anything like it. . . You'll emerge from this odyssey to the extremes of science and compassion more grateful to be alive



You'd swear you could hear the voice of these beings as fragile as paper



Ambitious, perceptive and eye-opening, if sometimes harrowing to read. . . The author manages to simultaneously capture the difficulties faced by carers, babies and families, without falling into pathos or sentimentalism. . . Goldszal gives voice to the premature newborn and tries to bridge the gap that surrounds its fragile existence



A book that makes us question everything, a book that moves us



A remarkable account of the vulnerability of existence and a historical-scientific investigation into the status of babies



Stunning. The most incredible book I've ever read on the subject of the hospital



With precision, intelligence and honesty, drawing by turns on philosophy, cinema, religion and psychoanalysis, Clémentine Goldszal attempts to illuminate the mystery of what Freud called "the first experience of anxiety" and offers some thoughts both sensible and sensitive on the "first cries" of these heroic newborns



What is existence? This question runs through every part of Clémentine Goldszal's book



A subtle and original reflection



Goldszal's book stuns and impresses - the author's reference points and analysis will change everything you think you know