A family's story can split in two, one version held by the mother and another by the daughter. Rachel Aviv reports seven such stories, attending to what each side knew and what each refused.
Readical Key Points
- Seven reported essays on mothers and daughters; six began as New Yorker pieces and were reconceived for this book
- A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice and a national bestseller, according to the publisher
- Starred review from Kirkus Reviews
- Content note: family trauma and a daughter's disappearance
- Hardcover, 240 pages
The pieces follow women on both sides of the bond: a mother searching for a daughter who vanished, and a mother who took nanny work caring for other families' children to support her own. The final essay, as the publisher describes it, follows a daughter whose traumatic experience her family erased and whose mother, the writer Alice Munro, later recast it in her fiction. Aviv writes that she came back to the older stories identifying with the mothers as well as the daughters.
The essays suit readers of long-form journalism, readers of Aviv's earlier book Strangers to Ourselves, and readers of writing on psychology and family life. The Los Angeles Times observes that Aviv favors questioning over closure, and these essays leave room for more than one account.
About the Author
Rachel Aviv has written about psychology, medical ethics and criminal justice as a staff writer at The New Yorker. She was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing and has won a George Polk Award and a National Magazine Award; her 2022 book, Strangers to Ourselves, was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and a New York Times bestseller.
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