'An immensely powerful, cannot-look-away novel of heart and bone and muscle and blood. The war novel has a rival... and it is breath-taking.' The Herald Lore arrives at the hospital alone: no husband, no partner, no friends. She is in labour. Franckline, a nurse in the maternity ward, herself newly pregnant, is assigned to her care. Over the spiralling course of eleven hours, the women are thrown together into a fierce, physical intimacy, and they begin to force one another to reckon with their pasts and their futures. Lore must disentangle herself from a love triangle; Franckline must move beyond deep traumas; both must prepare themselves for the fear, joy, anguish and awe of motherhood.