Lore arrives at the hospital aloneโno husband, no partner, no friends. Her birth plan is explicit: she wants no fetal monitor, no IV, no epidural. Franckline, a nurse in the maternity wardโherself on the verge of showingโis patient with the young woman. She knows what itโs like to worry that something might go wrong, and she understands the distress when it does. She knows as well as anyone the severe challenge of childbirth, what it does to the mind and the body.
ย Eleven Hours is the story of two soon-to-be mothers who, in the midst of a difficult labor, are forced to reckon with their pasts and re-create their futures. Lore must disentangle herself from a love triangle; Franckline must move beyond past traumas to accept the life thatโs waiting for her. Pamela Erens moves seamlessly between their begrudging partnership and the memories evoked by so intense an experience: for Lore, of the father of her child and her former best friend; for Franckline, of the family in Haiti from which sheโs exiled. At turns urgent and lyrical, Erensโs novel is a visceral portrait of childbirth, and a vivid rendering of the way we approach motherhoodโwith fear and joy, anguish and awe.