With fear, joy, ambivalence, and wonder, this braided collection of poems by Wendy Wisner explores motherhood through the lens of a fractured childhood and intergenerational trauma. As the past collides with the present, Wisner moves through the intense years of early motherhood and marriage, to the turmoil of raising children in a volatile, violent world. Shot through with sensuality and sexual vibrancy, The New Life grapples with the impermanence of life, the feeling that all we love could slip through our fingers at any moment. Ultimately, this is a book about healing and renewal-about reconciling past and present, and forging a new life.