The Long Answer

A woman considers pregnancy, motherhood, and the nature of female relationships in this profound and provocative novel.

Twelve weeks pregnant for the first time, Anna speaks to her sister on the other side of the country and learns she has just miscarried her second child. As this loss strains their bond and complications with Anna’s own pregnancy emerge, her tenuous steps towards motherhood are shadowed and illuminated by the women she meets along the way, whose stories of the children they have had, or longed for, or lost, crowd in.

The Long Answer is a stunning novel of secrets kept, and secrets shared. Deeply empathetic and hugely absorbing, it unravels the intimate dynamics of female friendship, sisterhood, motherhood and grief, and the ways that women are bound together and pulled apart by their shared and contrasting experiences of pregnancy, abortion, miscarriage, and infertility.

“Anna Hogeland’s The Long Answer is the novel that millions of parents, mothers in particular, have been waiting for. It breaks the silence that has prevailed for so long around pregnancy and its discontents, the anguish of losing a pregnancy, the wrenching decision to end one, the rage and envy that so many woman feel around the process of procreation. I’ve never read a book that speaks so bravely, and eloquently, about the burdens that women carry. Hogeland brings moments of darkness into the light. Astonishing. A masterpiece.”
— Steve Almond, author of All the Secrets of the World

“A brilliant debut, both coolly empathetic and searingly personal, a powerful bridge between fiction’s two current modes. Anna Hogeland writes beautifully, with unwavering passion and insight, about the complexities of motherhood and female relationships.”
— Jess Walter, New York Times-bestselling author of The Cold Millions and Brilliant Ruins

“A compelling, often-heartbreaking tale of belonging, loss, and rebirth. Looking beyond pregnancy’s physical transformations, Hogeland explores what it means to feel parental, to choose a life bigger than your own, or to lose a precious gift…The Long Answer is a heartfelt, finely wrought journey for fans of Suzanne Finnamore, Erica Jong, and Marian Keyes.”
— starred Booklist review

“In concentric circles of stories told and stories secreted away, The Long Answer is about women making life and losing life and about fertility itself–the promise and the more complicated truth. This beautiful novel tugs at friendship, marriage, family and women in moments of heartbreaking and miraculous transformation.”
— Ramona Ausubel, author of Sons and Daughters of Ease and Plenty

“In her gorgeous debut, The Long Answer, Anna Hogeland expertly explores issues of fertility, pregnancy, childbirth, and the uncertainty and trauma that too often accompany these major events. Hogeland’s empathetic protagonist absorbs the stories of the women around her, ultimately clinging to them for meaning in the face of her own tragedy. This book is a woman’s space, and readers will feel heard and seen.”
— Erika Krouse, author of Tell Me Everything: The Story of a Private Investigation

“The Long Answer examines stories of pregnancy, love, and grief, with unconditional empathy and curiosity. At the core of its many voices, the novel is a haven for truth and uncertainty, and for moments so personal they transcend categorization. Hogeland’s prose is as tender and urgent as our own desire to be understood. Her talent is as alive and thrumming as our most lushly private selves. Timeless and also profoundly relevant, I needed this book in my life.”
— Genevieve Plunkett, author of Prepare Her

“A brilliantly constructed novel…These characters breathe on the page, and their stories are moving and involving. What a wonderfully talented writer.”
— Richard Bausch, author of Peace

‘The Long Answer is truly brilliant. Anna Hogeland writes generously and astutely about motherhood, grief, fertility, and the relationship dynamics between mothers and daughters, sisters and friends, articulating with aching clarity the irresolution of loss, and the quiet power of love. I’m so happy that this beautiful book exists.”
— Miranda Ward, author of Adrift