A lovely keepsake book, this is a beautifully hard bound book with an integral silk ribbon bookmark. It contains a selection of stories, which I will review here fully in due course but have hurried to get the competition up and running in good time for Mothers Day. The first one began: ‘The noise Eddie makes when he first wakes for his two am feeding is closest to a fanbelt slipping…” a wonderful opening line that made me smile and nod in agreement, whilst capturing my heart for the rest of the story. The book is a nice size to read in bed and not too heavy after a hard days mothering. The stories are short enough that you can read one or two before collapsing into an exhausted slumber. Each tale touched my heart in its own way and made me wish that I’d been clever enough to record some of the intimate and magical moments that I spent with my baby when he was very new. The first few chapters of this book will take you back to those special days and leave you back in that warm and cosy (if sleep-deprived) place.
Each story is different and some seem to touch your soul as if you had read a full book. The tales are set in different times and places and each one looks at the mother-child relationship from a different angle, at a different age sometimes with a twist to the tale. You won’t be stuck reading baby stories because each one is as different and individual as we all are.
The official bio is below:
Selected and edited by Diana Secker Tesdell
A new title in the popular Pocket Classics series
Published: 8 March 2012
Priced: £10.99
Stories of Motherhood, the latest title in Everyman’s Library’s Pocket Classics series, is a wonderful collection of short stories celebrating all aspects of motherhood, the most elemental of human relationships.
Published in time for Mother’s Day on 18 March, this beautifully packaged anthology gathers together more than a century of short fiction, ranging from lyrical to satirical, realistic to fantastic, and hilarious to heartbreaking. The diverse array of authors write memorably about mothers – having, leaving, loving and losing them – with authors including Barbara Kingsolver, Alice Munro, Willa Cather and Colm Toibin.
Lydia Davis and Harold Brodkey explore dizzying encounters between young mothers and their newborn babies, while Colm Tóibín and Lorrie Moore portray adult children grieving for their lost mothers. Ron Carlson probes the forging of a bond with an adopted infant; Barbara Kingsolver gives us a sparring mother-and-daughter pair whose overlapping pregnancies lead them to common ground, and Aimee Bender offers a loopy fable of maternal connection in which a woman gives birth to her own mother.
Stories of Motherhood is a unique gift book, promising high-quality literary fiction presented as a beautiful keepsake.
I have two copies of this book to give away. The competition will close at midday on the 14th March, so that the winners will receive their gifts in time for mothers day. Good luck! UK & IRE only sorry. If winner has not responded by the next day then a further one will be chosen so that the book can be sent in time.
This is my first rafflecopter so if you encounter any errors, please tweet me @mummylion – thanks!
*disclaimer I received the product free of charge and the review and links were optional
