Part-memoir, part-philosophical call to arms, this is a brilliant, passionate and moving exploration of what it is to be a mother and wife in the twenty-first century. What does it mean to be intimate with those we love and what happens when we're not? How does motherhood tie into femininity, sexuality, status? How does society judge mothers and how does this influence them? How do working hours undermine our most important relationships? Why is our value system now exclusively achievement-based rather than based on intimacy? What is the future for our children and society in this increasingly functional culture devoid of emotion?

Antonella not only explores this terrain with the great visionaries of modern childcare, but reveals the joys, intimacies and elisions that led to her own metamorphosis: among them, her corrosive relationship with her own mother, her 32-year-old brother's suicide, the emotional and philosophical revolution triggered by the birth of her daughter, and the traumatic end of her ten-year marriage.

A beautifully eloquent and thought-provoking insight into the cultural significance of love and motherhood, Mama is unique in its scope, challenging our cultural capacity for intimacy. Why, Antonella asks, are we willingly forfeiting happiness in the pursuit of an ultimately meaningless ideal?