Six Contemporary Books about Motherhood
With Mother’s Day having just passed, we thought it’d be a good opportunity to pick out some contemporary novels that celebrate, eulogize and dissect one of the most significant and formative relationships of all of our lives. Here are six novels tied to motherhood that are well worth exploring.
Toni Morrison - Beloved, 1987
A modern classic by a Nobel Laureate, this novel won the Pulitzer and various other prizes. Beloved is the tale of a woman who was born a slave and escaped to Ohio, yet eighteen years later is still not free. Haunted by the ghost of her baby, filled with bitter poetry and suspense as taut as a rope, Beloved is a towering achievement.
Rachel Cusk - A Life’s Work, 2001
A funny, moving, brutally honest account of Cusk’s early experiences of motherhood, A Life’s Work was divisive when first published, drawing criticism and ire from various people. An education in babies, books, breast-feeding, toddler groups, broken nights, bad advice and never being alone, it is a landmark work, which has provoked acclaim and outrage in equal measure.
Jhumpa Lahiri - Unaccustomed Earth, 2008
Unaccustomed Earth is rich with Jhumpa Lahiri’s signature prose, emotional wisdom, and subtle workings of the heart and mind. A collection of stories that explores migration and various kinds of relationships, the title story is particularly relevant to themes of parenthood and families, telling the story of Ruma, a young mother who is visited by her father, who is harbouring his own secrets while trying to bond with his grandson.
Sheila Heti - Motherhood, 2018
In Motherhood, Sheila Heti asks what is gained and lost when a woman becomes a mother, treating the most consequential decision of early adulthood with the candor, originality, and humor that have won Heti international acclaim. In her late thirties, when her friends are grappling with this choice, the narrator of Heti’s intimate novel struggles to make a wise and moral choice, seeking guidance from philosophy, her body, mysticism, and chance.
Avni Doshi - Burnt Sugar, 2019
Sharp as a blade and laced with caustic wit, this Booker nominated debut is one of the finest south Asian novels of recent years, exploring the slippery, choking cord of memory and myth that binds mother and daughter In vivid and visceral prose, Avni Doshi tells a story, about love and betrayal between a mother and a daughter. A journey into shifting memories, altering identities, and the subjective nature of truth, Burnt Sugar is a brilliant read.
Douglas Stuart - Shuggie Bain, 2020
Hugh "Shuggie" Bain is a sweet, lonely boy who spends his childhood in public housing in Glasgow, Scotland. Thatcher's policies have put husbands and sons out of work, and the city's drugs epidemic is waiting in the wings. But as Shuggie grows older and begins to understand the world around him, the largest struggle he faces is looking after his mother Agnes, an alcoholic who spirals further and further even as Shuggie discovers his own sexuality and identity. A heartbreaking and brilliant book that’s well worth the hype.
Check out these titles and explore many more on the Hammock Literary Map.