“Eminently worthy of acclaim.” ― Vogue (The Best Books of 2022 So Far) An intimate exploration of motherhood, Linea Nigra approaches the worries and joys of childbearing from a diverse range of inspirations and traditions, from Louise Bourgeois to Ursula K. Le Guin to the indigenous Nahua model Luz Jiménez. Part memoir and part manifesto, Barrera’s singular insights, delivered in candid prose, clarify motherhood while also cherishing the mysteries of the body. Writing through her first pregnancy, birthing, breastfeeding, and young motherhood, Barrera embraces the subject fully, making lucid connections between maternity, earthquakes, lunar eclipses, and creative labor. Inspired by the author’s own mother’s painting practice, Linea Nigra concludes with an impassioned call: childbearing is art, and art is childbearing. “When interpreting pregnancy through art, no starting point is better than the musings of the Mexican writer Jazmina Barrera.…To call [ Linea Nigra ] a memoir would be reductive―it includes so many references to fine art, literature, and history that it functions almost as an anthology or a masterfully curated museum of child-rearing.” ― The Atlantic “A strange, slim, hybrid book…disarmingly fresh and provocative.…[Barrera's] is a vision of art as feminine, never truly original or new, but a cycle: art as birth and death; bodies decomposing in the dirt, the roots ’the tree of our flesh.‘” ― The New York Review of Books “A beautiful and lucid essay about the journey across motherhood seasons―pregnancy, childbirth and first months of parenting. Far from mythologizing motherhood as an idealized state, Linea Nigra sheds light on the complex and contradictory nature of gestation: a state crossed by terrors, but also by hopes and love; a biological and spiritual mystery that concerns all human beings, as individuals and as a society.” ―Fernanda Melchor, The Guardian “[ Linea Nigra ] provides a space to dialogue with the sensations, frustrations, and revelations [of motherhood] that are hard to share with anyone who hasn’t experienced them―but the book also opens a window on a fundamentally human story that has been insufficiently explored in literature.” ― Words Without Borders (The Best Books of 2022) “Rich and lovely.” ―Julie Phillips, author of The Baby on the Fire Escape “Part-memoir, part-commonplace book…[A] generous, openhearted project inviting readers to discover what is often hidden away, unseen.” ― Los Angeles Review of Books “By way of linea nigra―the book and the line―Barrera ultimately gestures towards the poetics of writing as a mother. The demands on the maternal body and the wonders it yields in the white-milk months inform this poetics.” ― Chicago Review of Books “Essayist Jazmina Barrera takes that physical line [the linea nigra] and writes about and (metaphorically) beyond it, packing her narrative memoir full of carefully considered and exquisitely worded musings on motherhood.…the multilayered, deeply felt work that her life experience and obvious talent have combined to produce is eminently worthy of acclaim.” ― Vogue (The Best Books of 2022 So Far) “Once again, we are reminded to think of writing, and gestation, as acts of acculturation and accumulation. Prenatal criticism is equally witness to, and affected by, pregnancy and art―in Barrera’s words, ‘one in the center of the other.’” ―Nikki Shaner-Bradford, Astra “Christina MacSweeney’s translation from the Spanish is reminiscent of poetry, capturing a dreamy ruminative mood.…Linea Nigra belongs among the few beautiful books that exist these days about motherhood and the self.” ― Full Stop “Fascinating, a self-induced literary tell-all so rarely accessed in any other form.” ― The Rumpus “An entirely idiosyncratic personal work of art…This book may have soft and curious skin, but its spine is pure steel, and as disconnected and immediate as each fragment feels, close reading reveals the meticulous skill of an artist in complete control of her work.” ―Helen Zuckerman, Hopscotch Translation “Barrera offers a moving study of pregnancy, family, art, and loss in this showstopping essay...[her] voice is meditative, bolstered by poetic turns of phrase, precise language, and fresh metaphors. ‘It’s impossible to be original when you write about being a mother,’ Barrera reflects, though her own originality is striking. This beautiful meditation is thick with profound insights.” ― Publishers Weekly (starred review) “Barrera includes historical anecdotes and quotes from other women who have written about motherhood, childbirth, and pregnancy―from Mary Shelley and Natalia Ginzburg to Rivka Galchen and Maggie Nelson―and she argues that pregnancy is a fundamentally literary experience.…Barrera communicates her trenchant observations in gorgeous, highly efficient prose that sharply reflects the fragmented reality of pregnancy and early parenthood. Rather than adhering to a traditional narrative structure, the author