In her novel The Best Mother in the World (La mejor madre del mundo, 2019) contemporary Spanish writer and journalist Nuria Labari presents both an intimate and a panoramic view of infertility, assisted reproduction, motherhood, and abortion. Her protagonist, a young middle-class woman living in Barcelona, narrates her story of becoming a mother in the first person, starting from an initial lack of desire to become a mother to a newly discovered longing to become one and, finally, the decision to abort her third, unexpected pregnancy. The Best Mother in the World presents a socio-political and critical reading of non-motherhood: it discusses the economic aspects of becoming a mother, the societal pressure, and the hypocrisy of medical discourse. Labari conceptualizes motherhood as a void that every woman must negotiate at some point in her life and which impacts her identity. The author challenges established discourses surrounding motherhood and non-motherhood by emphasizing the closeness of these two experiences. Therefore, motherhood and non-motherhood are portrayed as complex, dynamic, and ever-evolving phenomena rather than pre-conceptualized experiences.
