Sheila Heti Books In Order

Publication Order of Standalone Novels

Publication Order of Short Stories/Novellas

Publication Order of Picture Books

Publication Order of Plays

Publication Order of Collections

Publication Order of Non-Fiction Books

Publication Order of Anthologies

Sheila Heti is a literature and fiction writer born in Toronto, Canada. She has written novels, including Motherhood and How Should a Person Be? new York Times named her one of The New Vanguard’.

She was also on the list of fifteen writers around the globe who are shaping the way people read and write fiction in the 21st century. The author published her first novel, The Middle Stories, at twenty-four.

Her novels have been translated into twenty-three languages. The book critics selected Motherhood novel at New York Times as one of the top books of 2018. The New York Magazine also chose it as the best book of the year.

Sheila is a former interviews Editor of The Believer magazine and has done numerous interviews with artists and writers.
Vulture listed How Should a Person Be? among the 12 ‘New Classics of the 21st century.

Motherhood
In the novel, the author talks about what is gained and lost once someone becomes a mother while taking the ensuing decision of early Motherhood with humor, originality, and honesty. In the late thirties, most of her friends wish for the time they’ll become mothers, and the narrator of the story wonders whether she’ll do the same or not.

The novel spans several years, talking about the influence of partner peers and her tasks to her forbearers as she strains to make a wise decision. After getting guidance from herself, philosophy and chance, she finds her answer is much closer home than she imagined.

Motherhood is a story of a lady who is aware of what she wants but sometimes feels maybe she doesn’t know. The narrator explores Motherhood at different points while confronting her age as a thirty-seven-year-old lady.

There are important questions about womanhood that Heti never leaves behind. She wants her readers to understand about pregnancy journey and motherly duties. The conversation that Heti is having with herself and her characters is the kind that no one else is talking about, and it’s a book that most young women need to read.

The narrator is an open and questioning soul who genuinely searches for answers to unanswerable questions. They are questions that many young women are afraid to ask themselves, leave alone the people surrounding them.

Sheila Heti explores the question of whether to have children or not. Her unnamed narrator is like a Toronto writer almost in her late thirties while her biological clock is loudly ticking next to her ears. Her friends are having babies and feel some abandonment as they give in to the biological imperative.
People always ask her when she’s going to have a baby while receiving more opinions on what her life should be.

Her current boyfriend, Miles, who fathered a child at a young age, supports every decision she makes. He believes that one can’t be both a sound artist and a great parent. From an early age, the narrator learned that women in her family were defined through work, not Motherhood.

Miles is willing to have a baby if the narrator is ready. She is fertile and has money to pay her bills, and there seems to be no reason why she doesn’t want a baby if that is what she decides. All she thinks is that being a writer and a mother is a choice, and she cannot decide whether the benefits of being a mother will outdo the sacrifice.

The uncertainty about childbearing makes some sense in the novel as the narrator recalls that she wished to grow up like her mother as a child. The latter left the family home and took her apartment so that she could pay attention and be free from all distractions in her medical education.

The narrator feels creative work and not Motherhood is the answer for her, and at the beginning of the book, she ventures that her. In Motherhood, Sheila asks about the advantages and disadvantages a woman gets once they become a mother.

Motherhood is a stepping stone for some people, while it’s a checkmark on the to-do list of life for others. It’s a good topic, especially in a world where people get pregnant without examining the consequences of their decisions.

The narrator isn’t sure who to listen to when it comes to Motherhood as there are various views about it. For now, she prefers creative freedom and doesn’t let peer pressure fool her. However, on the one hand, she feels guilt and abandonment for not wanting what appears on the path and something that brings joy to most people.

On the other hand, the narrator bravely argues her point and stands her ground in not becoming a mother.
How should a Person Be?

Sheila Heti doubts herself wondering how a person should be for reasons well known. She’s inspired by Margaux, her friend who’s a painter. She suffers from writer’s block, and she is still failing on a play that she’s contracted to write.

She casts Margaux as material starting a series of recordings where she doesn’t take anything personal or too unworthy to be changed into art. Sheila soon begins to question her need to be visible, her mission to be both a student and leader and her unwillingness to sacrifice.

The story’s central focus is Sheila’s friendship with Margaux, and its strength is evident throughout the book. She feels intelligent while with a friend and assumes everyone else feels the same about them. However, she soon realizes that the whole thing isn’t realistic even though it’s her wish.

Sheila craves fame but not the fame that she’ll have to work at, not one that will interfere with her current lifestyle.

The themes in the novel are personal identity and feminism. How Should a Person Be? is a dark and funny exploration of the complex female relationships and the making of lousy art while still celebrating the imperfection of ordinary life.

The author comes in all directions, using appealing flexibility and sadness that deflates pretense while focusing on life’s bigger questions.

The book is funny, insightful, and smart to be a self-help novel for people who don’t think there are easy answers or any answers. Some of the questions include, should you stick to something even when you find it challenging? Should one give up at times? Is everything a lesson on how to become your authentic self?