This book was given to me by my mother who adores Doris Lessing, I struggled to get into her more famous works like The Grass is Singing. My mother told me this was the one of the most frightening books she ever read so I lay in the bath and read the whole thing in one go. I spent every day for a month after thinking about it and trying to give it to my friends struggling to comprehend what motherhood feels like. It is a book that nobody I know has read, but for me it is a classic that should have wider appreciation. -G
The Fifth Child is a short novel by the British writer Doris Lessing, first published in the United Kingdom in 1988, and since translated into several languages. It describes the changes in the happy life of a married couple, Harriet and David Lovatt, as a consequence of the birth of Ben, their fifth child.