SOLDIER SAILOR, by Claire Kilroy (Faber, $32.99)
It’s the middle of the night. Soldier is the only one awake in the house, watching her sleeping son, Sailor. She loves him beyond all else, but so often he exhausts her, physically and emotionally. Leaving an adult, autonomous professional existence among colleagues and friends for the lonely and unrelenting territory of first-time, must be among the most extraordinary and honest.