The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano

 by Donna Freitas

Adult Fiction

Reviewed by Linda-Winkler Branch

It's the little things that change the course of life.  Rose Napolitano, a sociology professor, has always been very clear that she does not want children. But now her husband Luke does, and they are having a fight over prenatal vitamins, which is ultimately a fight about whether or not to have a child.  We see this fight play out several times throughout the book, and each time Rose responds to her husband a little differently.  Each response sets her on a course for a different life, with or without Luke, with or without a child, which we see in snapshots.

The Nine Lives of Rose Napolitano is a fascinating read (this reviewer finished it in a day) about choices that shape our identity and about how we move forward into a future that doesn't look like what we had originally planned.  It takes a good hard look at the pressure on women to have children, to be mothers first and everything else second, and also at how very complicated motherhood-and love-can be.  If you're interested in novels about real people working through challenging situations and relationships, this one is for you.

SCRL also carries Donna Freitas' memoir Consent: A Memoir of Unwanted Attention and the young adult non-fiction title The Big Questions Book of Sex & Consent.

Check out this book here