April 21, Wednesday

Expecting ... The Unexpected

One day, Ann Leary, a television and film writer (as well as the wife of comedian Denis Leary), packed her weekend bag for a brief trip to London and wound up staying nearly half-a-year. Why? Because she happened to have her baby there—three-and-a-half months before her due date. Leary's funny, touching new book, An Innocent, A Broad, details her unexpected journey through first-time motherhood in a strange land.

Desperately worried about the health of her prematurely born son, Jack, Ann struggles to adapt to motherhood and make sense of a very different culture while, simultaneously, Denis finds himself an overnight sensation on London’s comedy scene. Writing about premature babies and poll-tax riots, midwives and mad cow disease, blood-oxygen levels and breast pumps, Leary is a reminder that Murphy’s Law reigns supreme. And yet, her witty and entertaining chronicle of two simultaneous and unexpected births, that of a baby and a major show-business career, is a smart look on the fragility of new motherhood and how she -- along with her son (now a teenager) -- rises to the occasion big-time.

An Innocent, A Broad by Ann Leary is available online at barnesandnoble.com.