Wait Here

by Lucy Nelson

A dazzling collection of hilarious and heart-wrenching stories united by a groundbreaking each is a sidelong glance at the lives of women who – either by choice or by circumstance – will never be mothers and who feel every way it is possible to feel about it.

A dancer discovers she can never have children – a revelation that pales in comparison to the other ways her body has betrayed her. Two elderly sisters who’ve been inseparable throughout life make a momentous decision. A wet nurse at Coney Island’s infamous ‘Incubator Babies’ sideshow is haunted by the ghost of her own stillborn daughter. A young woman worries about the lack of male role models in her little niece’s life…

For the women in Wait Here, who can’t, don’t or won’t have children, childlessness is a hard-won prize, a freedom, a stain, a joy, a battle, a trifle, a conundrum, a wound, an uneasy comfort on a burning planet.

It is nothing. It is everything.

Genres: Short Stories, Fiction

180 pages, Kindle Edition

Published June 4, 2025

Reviews

[EmG ReadsDaily · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tender. Compassionate. Beautifully written. This is a brilliant collection.

‘It is nothing. It is everything.’

[Jaclyn]

It felt so good to be reading short stories again! I didn’t realise how starved I have been of them with so few collections being published (especially by Australian writers). Nelson understands the form and uses it in interesting ways. These stories are about women and their complicated relationships with the decision to have children. The subject is ripe for exploration in short-form fiction and I really enjoyed these stories. The collection, with each story accumulating, felt like it was inviting the reader for her story on the subject and one day I might share mine. It can be such a fraught topic can’t it and it brings me back to the part in Yiyun Li’s memoir (I think everything will bring me back to this book for a while) where on the first mother’s day after her second sons death by suicide she is asked if she is a mother. The weight of that seemingly innocent question.

[Ambie ♡︎ · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed Wait Here. It’s a quiet, reflective book that leans more into emotional depth and character than plot — but that’s what made it stand out. The writing is subtle and tender, capturing what it feels like to be caught in that strange space of not knowing what comes next.

I especially liked that it’s set in Australia. Even though the story doesn’t focus heavily on the landscape, the Australian setting still felt present in the tone and environment — and as an Australian reader, it was nice to see that kind of familiar backdrop and cultural detail woven into the story.

At times the pacing was a bit slow, but it suited the feeling of the book. It’s one of those reads that asks you to sit in the stillness and reflect. If you’re into character-driven stories that explore emotional uncertainty with quiet strength, this one’s definitely worth picking up.

[Sue · Rating 5 out of 5]

This short story collection features protagonists who do not have children and probably never will. More important, these are great stories, quirky and original. We read about a woman who looks for her aborted baby everywhere. In “The Feeling Bones,” Nelson uses the bones of the body to tell mini stories about her characters’ lives. The title story, “Wait Here,” takes place entirely in a therapist’s waiting room. There, the lead character finds a comfortable oasis where she can invent stories and avoid what she has come to talk about: a baby she apparently aborted or miscarried. I truly enjoyed these stories. They’re easy to read and a relief for childless readers who are weary of fiction that always ends with the woman having a baby.

[G Batts · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dnf @42%

The writing style reminded me of Ronan Hession, gentle stories of ordinary people with their ordinary eccentricities. But Hession has a dark humour running through his stories that prevents them from getting too twee. Nelson’s characterisations remained fairly shallow, the stories could have been a smidge longer to allow her to get under their skin a bit more.

I got about 5 stories in and wasn’t compelled enough to continue.

[Chanel Chapters · Rating 3 out of 5]

*Motherhood: optional. Opinions about it: unwanted.

3.25

[Robert Watson · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's rare for me to read a short story collection in one sitting, but this debut fiction was a joy. The strong themes of motherhood and female friendship were sensitively and tenderly explored.
I eagerly await Lucy Nelson's next offering.

[kalvid · Rating 5 out of 5]

I don’t usually read collections, but I picked this one straight off my local library’s shelf because of the obvious theme it carries. (I had actually been eyeing this book at Kinokuniya, read the first few pages there, but I was too broke to buy any books in this economy.) I love how sentimental and intimate each phrase, sentence, and the entire collection is written. It feels like a love letter to us—all women out there who don’t want, can’t have, or have lost children. It comforts me in a way that neither my own internal thoughts nor my conversations with my husband ever could, especially when it comes to settling into our decision not to have children.

I’ve always known I never wanted children—never had any interest in having them, even when I was a child myself. And as I grew older, I only gathered more and more reasons that reinforced the early verdict I gave myself as a child about my adult life. This book touches me gently in places I didn’t even know existed—showing me that not having children isn’t only a rational decision, but also an emotional one.

Lucy ends the book with a very powerful line, one that speaks the loudest to me compared to everything else in it:

“The problem with never saying never is that it’s always saying maybe.”(p. 227)

[Azerie Cromhout · Rating 4 out of 5]

Gorgeous book. I read this in one sitting waiting for my mother to come out of surgery. It kept my mind off things. The beautiful prose and the wonderful stories brought tears to my eyes and gave me an excuse: I'm not crying because I'm worried, I'm crying because of Shippy and Fern; because of Lorna; because of the chickens. Because of: "It Isn't Like That" and, "All the World Loves a Baby" and, "I Am Five. I Am Twelve. I Am Twenty".

Poignant. Stunning. Cathartic.

[Miss B · Rating 3 out of 5]

Following a glowing review in The Guardian on 20 June 2025, I borrowed this book from my local library and read it that weekend. I am glad I borrowed it as I would have felt ripped off if I bought it at current prices (Kindle AU$13, paperback AU$25). Firstly, because it wasn't my cup of tea and I only liked a small number of the stories. Secondly, you don't get a lot for your money. The book has 12 short stories (almost all vignettes) varying from 2 to approximately 30 pages. It's a quick read at roughly 230 pages all up, 2-3 blank pages between stories, and quite spaced out lines of text. To give a guide, even the longest stories only took me 10 minutes to read.

I honestly think I would not have been so disappointed if I hadn't seen The Guardian review, the testimonials promising something special and the book's marketing. It over-promises and under-delivers! From the blurb:

"A dazzling collection of hilarious and heart-wrenching stories united by a groundbreaking theme: each is a sidelong glance at the lives of women who - either by choice or by circumstance - will never be mothers and who feel every way it is possible to feel about it."

A few of the stories had mildly amusing moments or characters, but I wouldn't call any of them hilarious! I definitely wouldn't call the collection groundbreaking either. There are plenty of books with well-developed childless and childfree characters, both central to the story and not (detectives and spies make good examples, like Miss Marple, Robyn in the Robert Galbraith detective Strike series, the Vera Stanhope books by Ann Cleeves, agent Liz Carlysle in Stella Rimington's books) and there's plenty of fiction and non-fiction involving miscarriage and fertility struggles, less commonly stillbirth. The characters in this collection feel mostly underdeveloped, even allowing for them being short stories.

The collection does not show women "who feel every way it is possible to feel about it." A bold claim and a massive overstatement it turns out! I'm happily childfree and was disappointed the stories are predominantly childless or ambiguous. I suspect the "every feeling possible" claim contributed to my disappointed reaction, it's just so misleading and dashes hopes of anyone childfree who is then hoping to see themselves in the stories. Some of the stories don't even blooming explore feelings on the topic at all! (eg. the miscarriage in story 2 is told from the perspective of the niece and we don't get much idea what her aunt feels about it, story 7 has nothing in it at all about being childless or childfree). And most of the women in the stories, from what we see of their inner worlds, are either peculiar, neurodivergent, neurotic and in some cases psychotic. If you're happy, sane, confident in your decision and enjoying life as a SINK or DINK, you may not find much to relate to in this book! There's very little exploration of the many motivations, thoughts, or feelings about being childfree.

Until the final story (which does a lot of heavy lifting for the collection in tying a thread through the stories that is otherwise lacking), the childlessness theme linking the stories is about as strong as them simply all being about women. I found the collection as a whole surprisingly shallow and unsatisfying, not particularly moving (maybe I'm coldhearted!), random/disconnected, and had a vague sense throughout of being offended by the idea that childless women were so weird. I quite liked the last story, though its function in the collection was so transparent it took me out of the story and distracted me gah!

I've no idea how well this book will do as I don't normally read short story collections and don't know whether that's a popular genre. But if it gets another print run, I hope the author and publisher reconsider the marketing, the cover and maybe even re-order the stories. They use the phrase "women who will never be mothers" on the front and back covers. I find it extremely offensive. The story billed as a stillbirth story read more like a neonatal death than stillbirth. Regardless of which it was, I call mothers who've delivered a stillborn baby, or a baby who dies, MOTHERS. I don't think I'm alone in this view! There are stories of early pregnancy loss and termination in the collection and that's more divisive I think, but looking at online discussions on the topic, some of these women also consider themselves mothers and could be offended too.

[NoMo Book Club · Rating 5 out of 5]

In this collection of short stories, each one embraces a different take on non-motherhood. The 12 tales present a selection of the many ways that women can experience or feel about this life path. Characters we meet include a woman whose thoughts become consumed by motherhood after an abortion, a wife reluctantly agreeing to therapy after the loss of a baby, a young dancer who doesn't feel any significance in being told that she won't be able to have children, and a childless aunt who lives with her niece and loves her deeply.

Too often the narrative around not having children is divided into a simple division of those who don't want to and those who were unable to, but those are only two potential starting points for non-parenthood. The value of the collection lies in that it shows readers that there is no one story of non-motherhood - each voice, experience or perspective included in the volume illustrates the myriad ways that someone may end up at a destination other than parenthood. These are stories that involve subtleties, nuances and unexpected turns, and yet these are still only a smattering of the potential stories about us - if each one of us penned our own narrative of non-motherhood, each one would be unique.

And, despite the central thematic thread of the collection, the women's lack of children is held up as one fact amongst many - there are other facets to their lives and other elements that are considered important to their narrative. As in the life of any real non-mother, non-motherhood cannot exist as the be all and end all of our story - Lucy Nelson shows that we are still whole women with whole lives.

[Mary Polzella · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting connection of short stories written by Australian author Lucy Nelson about women and their relationship with motherhood - women who have had children, who want or don't want children, who are unable to have children and those who have not been faced with the opportunity to have them.

I loved that these stories were set in Australia - while this isn't obvious, there are subtle references which allude to the setting . The unique, bold stories are character-driven, capturing the emotions and circumstances of the protagonists well. My favourites include:
📖Chances Are, We Were High As Kites - elderly sisters make a pact regarding their deaths

📖 Wait Here - a woman sitting in the waiting room to see her therapist creates stories to avoid what she's there to talk about - the loss of her baby

📖Ghost Baby - a woman sees her baby everywhere and imagines the baby's life, after choosing to undergo a termination

📖I Am 5, I Am 12, I Am 20 - a woman considers the possibility of motherhood at various stages of her life

[Emily Hall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a little out of my wheelhouse, I don't often read short stories.

I found a sameness to the narrative voice which made it difficult to take each story on its own merit.

There was also an overwhelming theme of loneliness which is neither good nor bad but does make more of a statement about the childlessness than any individual story.

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

A collection of short stories pegged on the blurb to be about women who don’t have children. I felt the overwhelming similarity between the stories was the inability of the women to form real relationships rather than a lack of children in their lives

[Keira · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really like short stories, so was excited for this book. I thought that the narrative voice was very similar throughout all the stories though which made them all blur together a bit. A lot of the characters felt they could be the same character.

[MellyK · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 🌟

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sublime and exquisite writing.

Thank you Lucy Nelson.

[Sukanya Viswanathan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good collection of short stories. Liked some more than the others. The last one vibes with the current mindset and realities most of all.

[Sue Gould · Rating 4 out of 5]

Short stories - beautiful writing - tender, insightful, compassionate.

[Tamzen · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was fine but lacking in depictions of childfree joy

[Ashlee Withers · Rating 3 out of 5]

A series of short stories about women who by choice or not will not become mothers. Some stories really captured me and some I could have done without. Overall a good time.