Description
Edited by Filgate, Michele
Short /annotation:
“You will devour these beautifully written and very important tales of honesty, pain, and resilience” (Elizabeth Gilbert, bestselling author of Eat Pray Love)
Fifteen brilliant writers explore how what we don’t talk about with our mothers affects us, for better or for worse.
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In the early 2000”s, as an undergraduate, Michele Filgate started writing an essay about being abused by her stepfather. It took many years for her to realize what she was actually trying to write about: the fracture this caused in her relationship with her mother. When her essay, “What My Mother and I Don’t Talk About,” was published by Longreads in October of 2017, it went on to become one of the most popular Longreads exclusives of the year and was shared on social media by Anne Lamott, Rebecca Solnit, Lidia Yuknavitch, and other writers, some of whom had their own individual codes of silence to be broken.
The outpouring of responses gave Filgate an idea and the resulting anthology offers an intimate, therapeutic and universally resonant look at our relationships with our mothers. As Filgate poignantly writes, “Our mothers are our first homes and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them.”
Contributions by Cathi Hanauer, Melissa Febos, Alexander Chee, Dylan Landis, Bernice L. McFadden, Julianna Baggott, Lynn Steger Strong, Kiese Laymon, Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Sari Botton, Nayomi Munaweera, Brandon Taylor, and Leslie Jamison.
Review quote:
“These essays, each one exceptional on its own, encompass both love and writing at their most vulnerable, and could power entire cities with their electricity.”
—Booklist, starred review
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“Fifteen essayists—many luminaries—write unflinchingly about their mothers…Each one of these intimate and gut-wrenching essays reaches beyond itself to forge connections with readers.”
–Kirkus Reviews,
starred review
Review quote:
“The essays all address the authors” relationships with their mothers in stories to be savored but not necessarily read in one sitting. …beautifully composed.”
—Library Journal
, starred review
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“A fascinating set of reflections on what it is like to be a son or daughter… the range of stories and styles represented in this collection makes for rich and rewarding reading.”
–Publishers Weekly
Review quote:
“These are the hardest stories in the world to tell, but they are told with absolute grace. You will devour these beautifully written—and very important— tales of honesty, pain, and resilience.”–
Elizabeth Gilbert, New York Times bestselling author of Eat Pray Love
Review quote:
“By turns raw, tender, bold and wise, the essays in this anthology explore writers’ relationships with their mothers. Kudos to Michele Filgate for this riveting contribution to a vital conversation.”
–Claire Messud, bestselling author of The Burning Girl
Review quote:
“Fifteen literary luminaries, including Filgate herself, probe how silence is never even remotely golden until it is mined for the haunting truths that lie within our most primal relationships-with our mothers. Unsettling, brave, sometimes hilarious and sometimes scorching enough to wreck your heart, these essays, about love or the terrifying lack of it, don’t just smash the silence; they let the light in, bearing witness with grace, understanding and writing so gorgeous you’ll be memorizing lines.”-
-Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Is This Tomorrow and Pictures of You
Review quote:
“This collection of storyt
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