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We follow Eva as she makes a life long friend in Bridget Blume and her lovely family – particularly Bridget’s mother who feels like a really lifeline to Eva. Their relationship grows and changes and there are some really heartbreaking moments throughout this novel. Although Eva’s life could be construed as lonely, she has a best friend, Bridget, who fills the empty gaps perfectly. Bridget’s home is everything Eva dreams of; siblings, noise, mess, chaos - and the most warm and loving mother that ever lived. This is where Eva starts her journey to find out who she is, where she comes from and to try and understand the many variations of motherhood. This is a title that I may not have been drawn to immediately as it sounded a little syrupy. I was wrong. It’s filled with insight into friendship, ,love , longing loss and the bonds between women. For the lyrical quality of the writing alone, this is a wonderful book and despite moments of heartache, I’m so pleased to have read it. Powerful and compelling from start to finish. Absolutely brilliant - quirky, original, funny, moving and wonderfully written. Basically, it's everything I love in a novel; Gavin Extence, author of The Universe Versus Alex Woods This is Joanna Glen’s second novel and with just two books she has become an auto-buy author for me.
Eva has suspicions about her family and raises numerous questions and does some investigating throughout. This goes on for a number of years, along the way we meet some lovely characters and families and one or two not so lovely characters. It’s an immersive story, at times it’s joyful and happy but also at times it’s painful. Note: My thanks to NetGalley and HarperCollins Publishers Australia for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes. This book, this book is immense. We are following the story of Eva, from her first memories as a four year old starting school and making a best friend, all the way through to adulthood. We see her at her best and her worst, at her highs and lows. This book doesn't pull it's punches. Having the nuns be "the real mothers all along" feels wrong when one knows the true picture of what was happening. The religious subtone was excellent, don't get me wrong, and at the end it made sense, but it also got pushed to the front, instead of other areas that could be explored like fragile masculinity, or Pink Mother's mental state. Its been at least a year since a book left me in tears but here we are. All My Mothers is a life story. It’s a brilliant and heartfelt exploration of motherhood, grief, friendship and the importance of platonic love.
Joanna Glen Press Reviews
A mesmerisingly beautiful portrait of a young woman discovering what home means to her, and a poignant depiction of how our actions can touch other people's lives in ways we could never have anticipated.” - Sarah Haywood, author of The Cactus All My Mothers is a captivating and heartening view of motherhood and what it means to be a mother, both within its traditional parameters, and in all its unconventional but beautiful ways. More than that, though, it is a story of unwavering female friendship throughout Eva’s life, starting from age four and on into her twenties and thirties. One of those rarest of books: so beautiful I almost couldn't bear it, and so moving I was reading through tears' STACEY HALLS
I loved this book SO much. It's uniquely witty, beautifully observed, intricately woven - it made me laugh and weep and I truly never wanted it to end' MIRANDA HART Anyway, I could rant more: about Barney and the romanticism, about how that was dealt with, about Carrie being forgotten although she also is a mother, about many thinhgs. But let me stop here. I missed the author's debut novel when it was originally published, but I'm going to remedy that very soon. If it's half as good as this one, it will be wonderful. No hay cosas que me guste más que adentrarme en una historia completamente a ciegas, sin tener referencias de nadie. Simplemente dejarte llevar por esa vocecita que te dice "este libro es para ti". Y lo mejor de todo es así es: este libro llegó para quedarse. Overall, it is a story about a girl whose “mother” felt like a phantom and an intruder. All her life, Eva has never truly felt connected to her mother, neither emotionally nor physically. This is why she clings to a color schemes which sorts all kinds of mothers into distinct colors to describe their personality and qualities of how a true mother should act and behave. For her, it is a way to cope with the neglect and detachment of her parents. Throughout the story, she encounters various types of mothers who act as a role model and dramatically shape her one way or the other.
Featured Reviews
Right away I'm going to say that this book totally overwhelmed me to the point that I don't really know how to talk about it. I've spent the last couple of days immersed in it and have come away a slightly different person. This was stunning from start to finish. It tells us the story of Eva, a young girl who longs to have the perfect family. Sadly for Eva, ger mother isn't able to be present for her and her father isn't really around. Through this, she's left with the lingering question some young children come up with: maybe these aren't my parents at all.
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