Human Blues

"Crackling and bighearted...A powerhouse [that] echoes with the truth that we find harmony when we listen first to ourselves." --Oprah Daily * "Takes off with magnificent speed and never lets up." --The New York Times * "Revolutionary." --NPR's Morning Edition * A Los Angeles Times and Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year

A provocative and "darkly funny" (Cosmopolitan) novel about a woman who desperately wants a child but struggles to accept the use of assisted reproductive technology--a "riotous, visceral" (Vanity Fair) send-up of feminism, fame, art, commerce, and autonomy.

On the eve of her fourth album, singer-songwriter Aviva Rosner is plagued by infertility. The twist: as much as Aviva wants a child, she is wary of technological conception, and has poured her ambivalence into her music. As the album makes its way in the world, the shock of the response from fans and critics is at first exciting--and then invasive and strange. Aviva never wanted to be famous, or did she? Meanwhile, her evolving obsession with another iconic musician, gone too soon, might just help her make sense of things.

Told over the course of nine menstrual cycles, this utterly original novel is a "fast, fiery, and often funny" (The Boston Globe) interrogation of our cultural obsession with childbearing. It's also the story of one fearless woman at the crossroads, ruthlessly questioning what she wants and what she's willing--or not willing--to do to get it.

Author: Elisa Albert
Publisher: Avid Reader Press / Simon & Schuster
Published: 07/05/2022
Pages: 416
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.28lbs
Size: 9.10h x 6.10w x 1.40d
ISBN: 9781982167868


Review Citation(s):
Library Journal Prepub Alert 02/01/2022 pg. 1
Publishers Weekly 05/23/2022
Shelf Awareness 07/08/2022
Booklist 06/30/2022
Kirkus Reviews 08/01/2022

About the Author
Albert, Elisa: - Elisa Albert is the author of After Birth, The Book of Dahlia, the short story collection How This Night Is Different, and the editor of the anthology Freud's Blind Spot. Her fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Tin House, The New York Times, Post Road, The Guardian, Gulf Coast, Los Angeles Review of Books, The Believer, The Rumpus, Time Magazine, on NPR, and in many anthologies. Albert grew up in Los Angeles and received an MFA from Columbia University, where she was a Lini Mazumdar Fellow. A recipient of the Moment magazine emerging writer award and a finalist for the Sami Rohr Prize, she has received fellowships from The Virginia Center for Creative Arts, Djerassi, Vermont Studio Center, The Netherlands Institute for Advanced Studies in Holland, the HWK in Germany, and the Amsterdam Writer's Residency. She lives with her family in upstate New York.