My Work

Name: My Work
Rating: 3.992 (133 reviews)
ISBN: 9780811234726

By Olga Ravn & Sophia Hersi Smith &

Publisher Description

From the acclaimed author of The Employees, a radical, funny, and mercilessly honest novel about motherhood.

After giving birth, Anna is utterly lost. She and her family move to the unfamiliar, snowy city of Stockholm. Anxiety threatens to completely engulf Anna, who obsessively devours online news and compulsively orders clothes she can’t afford. To avoid sinking deeper into her depression, she forces herself to read and write.

My Work is a novel about the unique and fundamental experience of giving birth, mixing different literary forms—fiction, essay, poetry, memoir, and letters—to explore the relationship between motherhood, work, individuality, and literature.“Olga Ravn writes dazzlingly about the work of motherhood and the work of writing. Reading Ravn’s book, you run through the whole gamut of human emotion, as though you too were a new mother: tears, laughter, anger, fear, pain, frustration. This is powerful writing that’s hard to put down.”—Politiken

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My Work Reviews

3.5

Soliyana

Created 4 days ago

Thought-provoking Clear

Sean S.

Created about 1 month ago

“Love this author and her writing but this was just too repetitive regarding the subject matter. I get it, you regret having the baby.”

Samuderasa

Created 5 months ago

“Now I know why the title use word "My Work". Because work usually mean office job, work that make money. But women also do work at home. Being a housewife is work. Taking care of family is work. PREGNANCY IS WORK. GIVING BIRTH IS WORK. So my work is not only job. MY BODY, MY TIME, MY LIFE. ALL OF THAT IS MY WORK. I love how Olga Ravn blends memoir, diary notes, poems, and short stories. At first the writing felt messy, but the more I read I understand why. It shows how hard pregnancy and life after birth are for women, and how it can make them depression and anxiety. Society say it is women nature to have children, and expect them to do it. But people still dismiss their feelings and say, “Just do it, you will be fine, a child brings blessing.” HAS ANYONE EVER ASK HOW THEY REALLY FEEL?? This book catch the core of women anger in society very sharp. Anna call her baby “The Child”, not “My Son”. It show emotional distance because postpartum depression. She not feel ready to have a child yet, and this book say PPD IS REAL. Society expect mother to love their baby right away. Even on social media, many people look down and blame readiness or money as the reason for baby blues. Often women not support other women. What people forget is the biological trauma of giving birth. From this, I understand the meaning of the saying heaven under mother feet, not only because giving birth, but because the trauma they carry after. And this make me cry when I read it.”

solslice

Created 5 months ago

“I do not have children nor have I experienced childbirth, so I have a very limited ability to directly relate to the crucial event this entire book centers on. Yet the narrator is so articulate and has such a perceptive eye on the conflicts and tensions and (honestly) despair that the book was still able to speak to me. It does a wonderful and thorough job parsing out all the ways that motherhood demands the obliteration of the self and the sacrifice that in any other context would be justified in souring into resentment. Yet again the precision in her language is such that you never feel that she hates her child or thinks that motherhood is devoid of joy. Her struggle is with the myth of motherhood. The mixed format was hit and miss for me, but despite that and that I am not a mother myself, I still appreciate what this book does and amply achieves.”

Aaron Santos

Created 5 months ago

“Anna is such a commendable mother and the whirlwind of emotions that come from creation, that come from birth can be overwhelming, debilitating, and there are so many different things that exacerbate her anxiety such as keeping track of environmental factors that could be detrimental to the child’s health or buying luxurious clothes that put her in financial ruin. She describes motherhood as an “abyss” and has this growing animosity towards Aksel her husband because he can just continue on with his career while Anna has to deal with the physical and emotional pain from giving birth, nurturing the newborn, and tidying the house. There’s this oppression, this patriarchal blind spot that Olga Ravn reinforces that your whole world has to be put on pause and you hardly get any gratitude from committing to this hellish nightmare. Also, I love the conversation between the therapist and Anna about the news which is always so negative, triggering your fight or flight and can really reinforce pessimism. You would think that this book would be convoluted and overwhelming to read the way that it shapeshifts from novel, to poetry, to letters, to commemorating feminist authors who have had the same sentiments of pregnancy and being in communities that aren’t pro-choice and don’t invest in birth control, but it is so cohesive. This is a devastating and depressing way to start the year lol but it’s such a beautiful riveting novel.”

Captivating Challenging Moving Accurate Well-researched Cohesive Flows well Thematically-structured Dense Engaging

About Olga Ravn

Olga Ravn (born 1986) is a Danish novelist and poet. In collaboration with Danish publisher Gyldendal she edited a selection of Tove Ditlevsen’s texts and books that relaunched Ditlevsen’s readership worldwide. Her novel The Employees was on the shortlist for the Booker Prize in 2021, and The Wax Child was on the longlist for the Booker International Prize and the shortlist for the National Book Critics Circle Award in Translation in 2026.

Other books by Olga Ravn

The Wax Child

Olga Ravn & Martin Aitken

$18.95

There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die

Tove Ditlevsen & Sophia Hersi Smith &

$12.99

The Employees

Olga Ravn & Martin Aitken

$14.20

Sophia Hersi Smith

Sophia Hersi Smith is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Jennifer Russell, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Tove Ditlevsen, Marianne Larsen, Olga Ravn, and Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild.

Other books by Sophia Hersi Smith

On the Calculation of Volume (Book V)

Solvej Balle & Jennifer Russell &

$16.10

Vilhelm's Room

Tove Ditlevsen & Sophia Hersi Smith &

$12.99

On the Calculation of Volume (Book IV)

Solvej Balle & Sophia Hersi Smith &

$15.95

On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)

Solvej Balle & Sophia Hersi Smith &

$15.15

There Lives a Young Girl in Me Who Will Not Die

Tove Ditlevsen & Sophia Hersi Smith &

$12.99

Jennifer Russell

Jennifer Russell is a translator living in Copenhagen. Together with Sophia Hersi Smith, she has translated fiction and poetry by Danish writers such as Tove Ditlevsen, Marianne Larsen, Olga Ravn, and Rakel Haslund-Gjerrild.