Ten of the best births in fiction

At the Guardian, John Mullan named ten of the best births in literature.

One title on the list:

Beloved by Toni Morrison

Runaway slave Sethe is trying to make it across the Ohio river to a state where blacks are free. Short of her goal she goes into labour in a field of camomile, sure that she will die. But Amy, a young white girl, helps her to a nearby shed, where she gives birth to Denver.

Read about another birth on Mullan's list.

Beloved also appears on Kit Whitfield's top ten list of genre-defying novels and on top of one list of contenders for the title of the single best work of American fiction published in the last twenty-five years.

--Marshal Zeringue