Bøger af Amanda Hess

At Amanda Hess's seven-month scan, the doctor analysing the ultrasound saw something he 'didn't like' - a potentially serious abnormality in her baby. Telling the moving story of this moment and everything that happened afterwards, Amanda Hess explores how it feels to become a parent in a culture in which everything is mediated by the internet and technology, in which the click of a mouse can conjure infinite information at any time - along with infinite opinions, suggestions and judgements. Exploring the outer reaches of different approaches to parenthood - from genetic testing and the pursuit of 'a normal baby' to freebirthers' refusal of any medical care or intervention into pregnancy - she explores compelling questions about how technology is changing culture, our relationships and our most fundamental human experiences. At the heart of the book is her own deeply emotional story - told in brilliantly stylish prose, alive with sharp insight and wry humour.

'Unexpected, intellectually rigorous, funny, beautiful; a profoundly talented writer' Claire Dederer, author of Monsters: A Fan's DilemmaIn the summer of 2020, when Amanda Hess was pregnant for the first time, a routine ultrasound screening detected a mysterious abnormality in her baby. Without hesitation, she reached for her phone, looking for answers online. But rather than allaying her anxieties, her search unleashed a destabilizing onslaught of data and technology, and she was vulnerable - more than ever - to conspiracy, myth, judgement, commerce and obsession.In Second Life, Hess tells her deeply personal story of a pregnancy that falls outside the fêted category of 'normal'. But this is also a story about all of us. For as she made her way through a bizarre digital world of pregnancy apps, prenatal genetic tests, gender reveal videos, rare disease Facebook groups, 'freebirth' influencers and hospital reality shows, Hess realised that ideas of eugenics, surveillance, ableism and hyper-individualism are being sold through shiny technologies to a new generation of parents.At once funny, surreal and heartbreaking, Second Life asks compelling questions about how our most fundamental human experiences are fractured and reshaped by technology.