An ';achingly wise' novel about the challenges of motherhood: ';Admirers of Marilynne Robinson will find themselves very much at home in this book' (The Wall Street Journal). Jessica Speight, an anthropologist in 1960s London, is at the beginning of a promising academic career when an affair turns her into a single mother. Baby Anna is delightfulbut with time it becomes clear that she is different from other children. Told from the point of view of Jess's fellow mothers, this is a movingly intimate look at the unexpected transformations at the heart of motherhood. ';How do we treat the child who walks among us in a different way than most? In Margaret Drabble's hands the answer is with a depth of empathy few master.' Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones ';Moving and meditative… I found a kind of somber bravery in the story of this unwavering, intelligent woman and her guileless and beautiful child.' Meg Wolitzer, NPR'sAll Things Considered ';The Pure Gold Baby is a closely observed group portrait of female friends, a patient insight into the joys and pains of motherhood, and an image of how society has changed and how it has not.' Harper's Magazine
