“Madwoman” is the Essential Novel About the Cycle of Domestic Abuse

Chelsea Bieker’s new novel Madwoman opens with a two-sentence mic drop: “The world is not made for mothers. Yet mothers made the world.” What follows is the story of Clove, a young mother in the Pacific Northwest fervently attempting to outrun her violent childhood by creating a perfect family of her own. But as her past pushes ever closer, Clove begins to understand that she will never be free of her secrets until she stares right at them. Bieker’s first two books—the novel Godshot and the story collection Heartbroke —announced her not only as a stunningly talented storyteller but also as an author with unique insight into motherhood and motherloss. In Madwoman , she homes in on how trauma ripples through a family, across generations and oceans. She considers carefully what is required to break the cycle of domestic violence once it’s been set in motion. I sat down with Bieker on Zoom in early summer to discuss how she crafted a thrilling literary page-turner that also moves forward a critically necessary conversation. We spoke about the inherent murkiness of memory, the claustrophobic isolation of new motherhood, how violence is too often carried forward not by its perpetrators but by its most innocent victims, and more. Marisa Siegel: When did you start writing Madwoman , and what did the journey toward the completed novel look like? Chelsea Bieker: The first inkling I had of the book was when I’d gone out for the first time since becoming a mom. I had so much undiagnosed postpartum anxiety after having my daughter in 2014; it was very hard for me to leave her. When she was around two, I remember going out to a reading one night, and afterward everyone went to a bar. There was a younger, seemingly childless woman there and I was kind of observing her, and was really taken by her—it was like seeing a reflection of a past self. It was a tiny moment, a little seed, but it was the beginning of wanting to write about how motherhood had changed me. I went home and […]

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