"I knew a mother who said, You want to know what it's like? Write a list of all the things you love doing and then cross them out, one by one. But also: I knew a mother who knew all the other mothers. As she walked through the park this mother stopped every few strides to be greeted by other mothers, some with buggies, some pregnant."
"The narrator has decided against having a baby, not for things-you-love-doing reasons, but because the idea of her child's future in this ailing world terrified her. Considering it, her mind filled with images of abandoned landscapes hostile to life. Burning cities, flooded cities, desertified meadows."
"Perverse though it seems, this horse soon becomes the centre of her life: her beloved. In a sense, Mare is about childlessness. She has trouble feeling connection to friends who are mothers, and avoids her own mother, who keeps sending her links to a jarringly cheerless blog called Child-Free and Fabulous!"
Mare follows a woman navigating three simultaneous crises: early menopause eliminating her possibility of motherhood, creative exhaustion ending her successful children's book writing career, and an intense emotional bond with a horse she doesn't own but rides and tends to several times weekly. Initially deciding against parenthood due to climate anxiety and fears for a child's future, she experiences profound disconnection from motherhood-centered social circles and her own mother. The horse becomes her emotional anchor and life's center, filling the void left by childlessness and creative paralysis. Through this unconventional attachment, the novel explores themes of loss, belonging, and finding meaning outside traditional life expectations.
Read at www.theguardian.com
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