Book cover of Eleven Hours

Book description

Eleven Hours is a visceral, vital, microcosmic illumination of the most pivotal moment of any woman's life: giving birth. With taut, sensitive prose, Erens explores the lives of two women in New York - one in labour, the other her Haitian midwife - to gracefully reveal the seminal moments that…

When you buy books, we may earn a commission that helps keep our lights on (or join the rebellion as a member).

Why read it?

1 author picked Eleven Hours as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

I’m recommending this book because it is a beautifully written book that centers a universally human event that is overlooked in literature: childbirth.

This book frankly and unflinchingly depicts a harrowing experience of a woman giving birth in a hospital. This book also tells the stories of two very different women—the woman in labor and the labor nurse. The book covers only hours of a life but touches on themes and motifs that concern all human beings: loneliness, care, medical care and how it’s given, relationships, childhood, coming of age, city life, mortality, and love.

If you love Eleven Hours...

Book cover of These Blue Mountains

These Blue Mountains by Sarah Loudin Thomas,

A moving story of love, betrayal, and the enduring power of hope in the face of darkness.

German pianist Hedda Schlagel's world collapsed when her fiancé, Fritz, vanished after being sent to an enemy alien camp in the United States during the Great War. Fifteen years later, in 1932, Hedda…

Want books like Eleven Hours?

Our community of 13,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Eleven Hours.

Browse books like Eleven Hours

Book cover of Beloved
Book cover of Dept. of Speculation
Book cover of The Days of Abandonment

Share your top 3 reads of 2025!

And get a beautiful page showing off your 3 favorite reads.

1,395

readers submitted
so far, will you?

📚 If you like Eleven Hours, you might also like...

Book cover of Need to Know: World War II and the Rise of American Intelligence

Need to Know by Nicholas Reynolds,

The authoritative but accessible history of the birth of modern American intelligence in World War II that treats not just one but all of the various disciplines: spies, codebreakers, saboteurs.

Told in a relatable style that focuses on actual people, it was a New Yorker "Best of 2022" selection and…

Book cover of Tsunami

Tsunami by LeeAnn Pickrell,

On the morning of December 26, 2004, an undersea earthquake struck off the coast of Sumatra in the Indian Ocean. The resulting tsunami killed an estimated 230,000 people across fourteen countries, from Indonesia to Sri Lanka to Thailand to the Maldives to India and all the way to East Africa.…

5 book lists we think you will like!