"In this uinique and utterly original book, Ilse Pedler explores the brutal and beautiful world of being a vet and a stepmother. This is a book filled with blood, but also with air and light, a book of hard-won knowledge, a book that is both pragmatic and tender, about listening and being listened to, and the types of care we give and receive." – Kim MooreIlse Pedler is a prize-winning poet who writes from the unique perspective of a practicing veterinary surgeon. Her title, Auscultation means listening and specifically, in medicine, listening to sounds that come from the body's internal organs. If listening is a central theme of this collection; it is also about being heard. This is a voice that has longed to be understood and heard from the depths of a difficult childhood and the emotions later raised by a court case for contact with her stepson.The book includes poems also about the author's constrained childhood, where children were to be 'seen and not heard', the death of her father, the love for her son, poems that muse on chemical elements and landscapes. There is also a final, moving section of poems, Fairy Tales and Stepmonsters: about being a stepmother, using the trope of the fairy tale to tell the story of the difficult role of the stepmother who often doesn't have a voice in court despite loving and caring for a stepchild, and outlining a difficult year in the life of a couple and a much-cherished child.Ilse Pedler's poems in Auscultation, with their cool realism, challenging subject matter, diverse use of classical and free forms and entertaining incidents, are sure to please intelligent, discerning readers.