Beams, Clare

Beam’s (The Illness Lesson) latest is an unsettling psychological novel about motherhood, childbirth, and bodily autonomy. Rooted in carefully considered historical and social contexts, this slow-burn includes a tinge of surrealism and will entice listeners who enjoy stories that are left open to the audience’s interpretation.

Bard Prize winner Beams (We Show What We Have Learned) successfully shapes the characters who tell the story, capturing the mores of the times and delving deeply into the psychological aspects of the situation. The underlying secret creates a tension that is resolved only in the final pages. Readers of general fiction will enjoy. [See Prepub Alert, 8/5/19.]