Newborn

 A baby's first cry announces a new life. But for some newborns, rushed from the delivery room to the neonatal intensive care unit, their survival hangs in the balance. What does it mean to enter the world before you're ready? And what can we truly know of newborn life-a time none of us can remember, yet all of us have lived? Seeking answers, journalist Clémentine Goldszal spends six months inside the neonatal intensive care unit at Necker Hospital for Sick Children in Paris. There, she witnesses the daily dramas of the ward: babies fighting for breath, doctors and nurses pushing the limits of medicine in an overstretched healthcare system and parents learning to love a child through the walls of an incubator. Tender and deeply humane, Newborn offers a rare glimpse into a world few of us ever see. It is both a portrait of those devoted to caring for the smallest and most vulnerable lives, and a visionary attempt to give voice to the mysterious inner life of the baby. 

 Born and raised in Paris, Clémentine Goldszal is a journalist, cultural critic and reporter covering literature and entertainment for ELLE and Le Monde Magazine. She has profiled figures such as Ronan Farrow, Fran Lebowitz, Graydon Carter, and, more recently, Deborah Levy. In 2020, she was appointed President of ELLE's readers' literary prize. Her work in English has appeared in Lithub, The Hollywood Reporter and Mastermind Magazine. Clémentine lives and works in Paris. Newborn is her first book.