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We expect to have good mothers, and to marry, and to be good mothers. The arrival of baby Violet was meant to be the happiest day of my life. I would be different. I would be like other women for whom it all came so easily. I would be everything my own mother was not.
But as soon as I held her in my arms I knew something wasn t right. My husband Fox says I m imagining it. He tells me I m nothing like my own mother, and that Violet is the sweetest child. But she s different with me. Something feels very wrong. Is she the monster? Or am I?
The best (and worst) novels of 2021 so far
In this regularly updated guide, our critics review the best of the year s fiction – and suggest a few books to avoid
Eight of the best: this year s top novels
The Start-Up Wife by Tahmima Anam ★★★☆☆
Tahmima Anam is best known as the award-winning writer of three novels (A Golden Age, The Good Muslim and The Bones of Grace), and less well-known as the executive director of a music technology startup called ROLI. An experience no doubt plumbed for her latest book, The Startup Wife, a tech industry-set reverse romcom in which a young Bangladeshi-American woman creates a social media network that gets out of control.