Maybe It Is My Heart

When Kristin Vego became a mother, she found herself unable to write fiction for a long time. Instead, she turned to the novels and short stories she loves, trying to understand what makes them so exceptional. What makes a literary text good? What is the writer’s method? Woven into Vego’s own reflections on writing and reading are the experience of motherhood, from birth through her child’s first year. In a long essay, she explores the relationship between mothers and daughters as it is written by authors such as Marlen Haushofer, Elena Ferrante, Kazuo Ishiguro, and Rachel Cusk.

Maybe It Is My Heart is an exploration of what literature can be, and at the same time an intimate portrayal of a mother’s first year of life with a small child.