Comics reading new parents (and friends and family thereof) take note:  The Mother has arrived.

Here's what its publisher, British Columbia-based Douglas & McIntyre – along with a large cohort of Deutsch's peers – have to say about it:

A raw and honest, harrowing and humorous journey into the dualities of modern motherhood in graphic memoir form.

New Yorker cartoonist Rachel Deutsch desperately wanted a baby, yet she was fearful of actually being pregnant and having one. She lurched into a new identity and then missed her old one. She loved her new baby fiercely, but yearned for her previous relationship with her partner, as sleepless nights revealed the cracks below the surface of their relationship.

Funny, provocative, visually striking and unabashedly candid, The Mother offers empathy and laughs to new and seasoned parents, encouraging readers to embrace the unexpected depths of feeling, wildness, weirdness and love that come with the territory.

 

“I laugh-sobbed my way through The Mother, so loudly my children came to check on me. Rachel Deutsch’s drawings are tender and absurd, capturing the total joy and humiliation of living in a body that distends and deflates to create another body. What I love most, though, is the truth Deutsch lays beautifully bare: that becoming a mother exposes all the vulnerabilities of childhood, requiring us to parent ourselves, too.”

–Angela Garbes, author of Essential Labor and Like a Mother
 

“Equal parts moving, funny, sad, and poignant, this book feels like a deep conversation with a wonderfully smart, open friend (who also has a fabulously creative brain and a very unique perspective). Rachel’s witty metaphors and expressive drawings made me laugh and feel less alone in the weirdness and discomfort that is being a human being and a mother. I can’t wait for other moms to read this book—I’m sure they’ll devour it just like I did!”

–Mary Catherine Starr, author of Mama Needs a Minute!
 

“This is a truly beautiful and special book. I laughed, and I cried.”

–Emily Oster, author of Expecting Better
 

“A hilarious and honest tale of navigating the road to parenthood and readjusting to the new baby life!”

–Lucy Knisley, author of Go to Sleep (I Miss You) and Kid Gloves
 

“(S)he captures both the absurdity and the wonder of parenthood.”

–HuffPost
 

“Rachel Deutsch dazzles in The Mother, giving us the very specific story of her matrescence, but somehow making it universal to all mothers. It is at once hilarious, heartbreaking, weird, and wonderful—capturing the delicate high-wire act of becoming a mom without losing yourself. Honest, profound, and slightly unhinged: this is new motherhood on full display.”

–Teresa Wong, author of Dear Scarlet and All Our Ordinary Stories
 

“Oh how I loved this. Profound, candid and wonderfully witty, The Mother is a tender self-reflection about the tumbling journey through early motherhood. You will find yourself on every page. This is the motherhood companion we need.”

–Ashley Audrain, author of The Push and The Whispers
 

“Look no further for the ideal baby shower gift! Searching, honest, funny and beautiful, The Mother by Rachel Deutsch charts a relatable journey from desperately-seeking single to the early awe of motherhood, examining along the way the parental relationships that shaped us as well as the trials and triumphs of procreative partnership. I laughed out loud. I cried. I loved loved loved this book, and you will, too.”

–Rachel Yoder, author of Nightbitch
 

“Rejoice! Rachel Deutsch’s The Mother is the graphic memoir parents and potential parents have been waiting for. Between poignant images capturing the absurdity and magic of pregnancy and mothering, we witness the re-creation of self in the face of procreation; the nurturing of one’s inner child while breastfeeding one’s newborn. Not one page was turned without me snorting in laughter or clutching at my heart.”

–Catherine Hernandez, author and screenwriter of Scarborough the book and film