Timely…A gripping, gorgeous novel about the healing power of stories.”—People Magazine
"Riveting...Unfurling across multiple timelines with impressive, confident fluidity, Mothers and Sons is a powerful study of the impossibility of trying to hold back the tides of familial hurt and trauma. When the levee finally breaks, the outcome is both heartbreaking and ultimately hopeful."—Vogue
"There’s no better writer at chronicling the highs and lows of familial love. In Mothers and Sons, Haslett shows a family both torn by past trauma and battered by the social turmoil of the present…The chronicle of this complex mother and son pair satisfies one of the best reasons to read fiction: to understand others and their impossible burdens, to mourn when they stumble and celebrate when they survive."—Los Angeles Times
“This beautifully written novel about the power of stories to redeem the past and reclaim the future is itself a tapestry of such narratives."—O, The Oprah Magazine
"Adam Haslett can take as long as he needs to write his novels when they’re this good"—John Warner, Chicago Tribune
“Beautifully written...An intricate, compelling novel about the power of stories and, especially, about the need to let go of those stories that keep people stuck… it's Haslett's appreciation of the all-too-human mess of life that makes his writing so arresting; his characters and storylines so authentic.”
—Maureen Corrigan, Fresh Air
“Well-paced and elegantly written, Haslett’s latest is a haunting work.”—Minneapolis Star-Tribune
“Mothers and Sons could not be more timely. Haslett…is one of the most psychologically astute fiction writers in America…There’s a strange tension in Haslett’s work between urgency and introspection. Try as you might, you cannot rush this novel…His prose lies on the page with the intensity of a loosely coiled copperhead; you don’t even see the camouflaged danger until it strikes. He’s a master of incident and particularly of the ordinary line that’s transformed by his pacing and placement into something altogether devastating.”—Ron Charles, Washington Post
“Mothers and Sons has a simple brilliance and charm, a subtle pull to delve deeper into the lives of [its] fraught characters and uncover the narratives we tell ourselves versus the truth. These are good people living ordinary lives, and it’s a pleasure to read about them."—Chicago Review of Books
“With Mothers and Sons [Haslett] demonstrates once again his ability to produce graceful, emotionally affecting fiction whose characters’ struggles seem as real as those of people we know in our own lives…Deliberately, and with consummate skill, Haslett braids these stories until, in the final third of the novel, he reveals the devastating event that lies at the heart of the emotional gulf Ann and Peter must span…Haslett’s prose is simultaneously efficient and evocative, so that the pleasures of this touching novel extend well beyond those that flow from engaging with a psychologically astute and well-told story. In his capable hands, Mothers and Sons is an exemplar of realist fiction.”—BookPage (starred review)
"The echoes of the Russian greats in the title aren’t misplaced—this is an epic family saga that packs an extraordinary emotional punch."
—The Guardian
“This deeply satisfying novel is a revelation—a thoughtful, psychologically acute, beautifully written examination of intersecting lives. The characters come alive on the page, commanding readers’ attention. This novel is sure to receive accolades, and it richly deserves them."—Booklist (starred review)
"Haslett’s storytelling skill...is on quietly magnificent display… As much as both mother and son understand about the power of stories to harm and heal, they’ve failed to reckon with their own story, and the guilt and shame each has been carrying for decades. The momentum of the novel builds as long-held misunderstandings and resentments come to the surface, illuminating the meaning of what it means to be a mother, and a son, and culminating with a great sense of a weight lifted, of lightness and air.”—Boston Globe
“Mothers and Sons” is Haslett’s best novel...he achieves new levels of moral depth and narrative push."—New York Times Book Review
“Excellent…Mr. Haslett sets up this story with a delicacy that will not surprise anyone who read his beautiful 2016 novel, Imagine Me Gone, which featured a fretful, caretaking mother and her manic-depressive son. He is particularly good at depicting the ways—often admirable, sometimes blinding—that both Ann and Peter have been shaped by their work.”—Wall Street Journal
"With characters so real you'll be invested from page one, Mothers and Sons explores how we grow estranged from our families and ourselves."—Real Simple
“The way that Haslett weaves together Ann and Peter's stories, as well as past and present, manages to be both formally sophisticated and emotionally authentic…the book excels at taking some seemingly small incidents in the present day and weaving them into the fabric of a long and complicated relationship. It shows that there is still room to mend the gashes in that fabric, with a little grace and a lot of listening.”—Book Reporter
“Mothers and Sons is both moving and deeply compelling, a story about the search for our own humanity, and the lengths we will go to maintain it. A new book by Adam Haslett is always cause for celebration. He is one of our very best writers.”—Ann Patchett, New York Times bestselling author of Tom Lake and The Dutch House
“Mothers and Sons is like sonar in a lake, pinging out everything submerged, the hidden stories, the shames and the joys. There’s nothing else like it. Haslett’s characters feel so real, their choices so hard, their lives so true. He is everything you want in a writer.”—Andrew Sean Greer, Pulitzer Prize–winning and New York Times bestselling author of Less
“A family-in-crisis story that keenly captures deep-seated fears and regrets…Haslett’s sophisticated grasp of the ways that people over-police their feelings makes it a remarkably acute and effective character study."—Kirkus Reviews (starred)
“Irresistible…Themes of guilt, new beginnings, survival, and violence permeate the excellent and subtle story of characters grappling with events beyond their control, and the author delivers a deeply personal portrait of Peter’s tenacious advocacy for his clients. This matches the heights of Haslett’s best work.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"One of the signal strengths of Haslett's work…has been its fierce concentration, the way every word has mattered, every sentence has had its specific torque.”—Bay Area Reporter
A mother and son, estranged for years, must grapple with the shared secret that drove their lives apart in this enthralling story about family, forgiveness, and how a fleeting act of violence can change a life forever, by "one of the country's most talented writers" (Wall Street Journal)
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and the love that might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (New York Times).
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At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and the love that might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (New York Times).
Mothers and Sons: A Novel
A mother and son, estranged for years, must grapple with the shared secret that drove their lives apart in this enthralling story about family, forgiveness, and how a fleeting act of violence can change a life forever, by "one of the country's most talented writers" (Wall Street Journal)
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and the love that might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (New York Times).
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is hurt by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago put behind her the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and the love that might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (New York Times).
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Editorial Reviews
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940192562369 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Hachette Audio |
| Publication date: | 01/07/2025 |
| Edition description: | Unabridged |
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