Madwoman by Chelsea Bieker: a tumultuous examination of the impact of domestic abuse on motherhood

By Sally O'Reilly, Honorary Associate in Creative Writing, The Open University

Clove is a young woman with a seemingly good life. She has an adoring husband, two healthy, happy children and a comfortable home in Portland, a pleasant US city. She is a perfectionist with an obsession with clean eating and super-health who has spent years building such “perfection”.

Unsurprisingly, this Instagram-friendly version of affluent domesticity is a sham used by her to conceal an abusive, violent and traumatic past – from herself as much from others.

Statistics around women and domestic violence make grim reading. In the UK, the National Centre for Domestic…

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