Seed by Elisabeth Easther

Elisabeth Easther is an actor probably best known for playing villainous Nurse Carla on Shortland Street, but she is also a journalist, book critic, and playwright. Her first novel, Seed, has just been published.

Originally an award-winning play, Seed is a 16-year labour of love, drawing on the author’s experiences of miscarriage and IVF. Following the lives of four friends, this story is about women desperate to have babies and those who do not want them. Seed examines the modern landscape of fertility through the lens of diverse circumstances and family dynamics. As the tagline on the cover aptly reads, ‘How far would you go to get a life?’

The four friends' circumstances couldn’t be more different. Maggie is a solo mum with a well-adjusted son, and she has a great co-parenting relationship with his father. But she prefers a single life, enjoys casual relationships, and isn’t looking to settle down with anyone permanently. But a surprise could be in store when she least expects it.

Maggie’s best friend, Hillary, is eager to have a baby with her partner, and she is now on the rollercoaster of fertility treatments, but nothing is going to plan. Will she get the happy outcome she is striving for?

Shelley already has two wonderful children and a very loving husband. But she has just gone back to work again for an advertising agency, but the juggle is proving to be a challenge even before life throws a curveball her way.

Virginia is a fun-loving, spirited midwife who has never settled down, but then she gets the hankering to have a child of her own and impulsively throws herself into the task of getting pregnant.

Seed is a bold novel, with highly detailed sections and moments of humour and tenderness. It’s big-hearted and eye-opening and will appeal to readers who enjoy Marian Keyes's novels.

Reviewer: Karen McMillan

Penguin