Heart’s Desire

A story of love….. and longing for a child
By Judith Uyterlinde

A real life story, told like a novel.

A taboo subject, which affects one couple in six: the difficulty of conceiving.

A powerful lesson in life, to make you laugh and cry.

There are several medical and practical books on infertility and treatments, but first-hand accounts of young women confronted by this problem are rare. The power of Judith’s book lies in its directness, warmth, humour and sincerity. It alternates between the humour of Bridget Jones’s Diary and the sensitivity of Letter to an Unborn Child. Each reader feels close to Judith and immediately becomes her friend. Her story comes from real life experience. In this sense, it is universal.

Journalist and editor Judith Uyterlinde is the author of Heart’s Desire. She is also the commissioning editor of foreign literature in one of the most prestigious publishing houses in the Netherlands. She is 42 years old and speaks several languages fluently, including English. This is her story.

I am a woman at the start of my life.

I want everything: love, friends everywhere, an exciting job, to travel to the other side of the world. And a baby.But that’s where things get complicated

To start with, I don’t conceive.

Then I have a miscarriage.

I try everything in my power.

As that doesn’t work, I try IVF.

No one around me knows what to say to me. Everything causes me pain: the sight of prams and baby clothes, clumsy words, silences.

Should I resign myself to this failure? Or try again?

Will this endless and painful longing continue to dominate my life?

I am overcome by rage, doubt and jealousy.

My life slips through my fingers.

Until a dramatic event, thanks to which I finally succeed in escaping this hellish spiral.

This book is my story. But it is also a story of love, ambitions, and the choices that women today are confronted with.

A woman who succeeds at everything, until this moment.

I wanted to tell the story of this journey, without hiding anything.

With humour, because that is my style. With tenderness, because without love, we can do nothing.

For more information or a review copy please contact:
Penny Capp
02 4998 3327
penny@exislepublishing.com