Manilla signs memoir exploring womanhood and choice in Trump's America

Bonnier Books UK has acquired Christa Parravani’s "harrowing and beautifully written" memoir Loved and Wanted: A Memoir of Choice, Children, and Womanhood for its new literary imprint Manilla Press.

Publishing on 15th October in hardback, e-book and audio, UK and Commonwealth rights (excluding Canada) were acquired by Margaret Stead, publisher for Manilla Press and Zaffre, from Sophie Lambert at C&W on behalf of Anna Stein at ICM partners.

In the book Parravani explores the concept of choice after her own experiences with healthcare in Trump’s America. In 2017, then aged 40, she had recently moved her family from Santa Monica to Morgantown, West Virginia, when–a year after giving birth to her second child–she became pregnant.

With not only the financial strain to consider (she had escaped a childhood of cyclical homelessness and poverty), she had a history of ectopic pregnancies and feared she wouldn’t receive adequate medical care in West Virginia. She decided she wanted an abortion but, at six weeks along, her doctor said he couldn't help; the only doctor who agreed to provide her with an abortion would do so illicitly, meaning no further medical assistance would be available if she needed it. 

Stead, the book's publisher, called it "a powerful, haunting exploration of womanhood and choice, written so vividly that it stayed with me for a long time after I’d put it down". She added: "The team at Manilla Press are all hugely proud to be publishing this courageous, candid, timely and beautiful memoir."

Lambert said Parravani "articulates the complexities of motherhood and the lack of control over our bodies we so often have".

Parravani said: "I’m honoured to bring Loved and Wanted to UK readers under the passionate editorial guidance of Margaret Stead, a champion of literature and of women writers. Margaret understood right away that while this book focuses on curtailed abortion rights in the US, the issue of funded, honest, and quality healthcare access for all citizens is of international importance – now more than ever."