Showing results for "The Mother" in Literature & Fiction

With her husband stranded in a war-torn country halfway around the world, a university professor – on whom the burden of managing their small family has suddenly fallen – tries to maintain order at home. Her young daughter seems not to mind, or even really notice, the father’s absence. But as the weeks go on, mounting pressure on the narrator to balance family and work begins to take a toll.

Fed up with the playground mafia at her children’s school, Rachel Young is desperate for a change. With her family and various pets in tow, a picture-perfect village in the countryside beckons. There, Rachel’s children will be able to keep chickens and skip through fields and she’ll bid farewell to the botoxed, fake-Gucci wearing Mumzillas forever. But at the new school the mums are even worse, and before long, Rachel finds herself contending with a motley crew including Mrs High School Musical, The International Sex God and The Frisky Pensioner.

Beloved naturalist and author Gerald Durrell introduces an eccentric cast of characters in this entertaining collection of stories, first published in 1991. Which of these stories is true and which is semi-true I have, of course, not the slightest intention of telling you, but I hope this will...

American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Kurt Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of grey with a verdict that will haunt us all. Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense.

The only thing Abi ever wanted was a proper family. So when she falls pregnant by an Australian exchange student in London, she cannot pack up her old life in Croydon fast enough, to start all over in Sydney and make her own family. It is not until she arrives, with three-week-old Jude in tow, that Abi realises Stu is not quite ready to be a father after all. And he is the only person she knows in this hot, dazzling, confusing city, where the job of making friends is turning out to be harder than she thought.

Like Mother is a mother-daughter comedy that explores two generations of women who are a lot alike, but who are desperate to believe otherwise.

When a middle-aged widowed loses her job at the butcher shop, she’s at a loss as to how to provide for her family—until she’s offered a position that puts her carving skills to new uses in this darkly humorous bestselling Korean thriller. Mrs. Shim needs money. She’s lost her husband and...

When Becca's daughter, Sophie, leaves for university, she finds herself with a very empty nest and no idea how to fill it. Her marriage to Steady Steve hasn't excited either of them since the noughties, and with her job being taken from under her by someone much younger, Becca is losing her grip on all of her labels - mum, wife, employee. Forced to move in with her estranged mother after she takes a fall, Becca is confronted by the fact that her life doesn't look at all like she expected it would.

Tara Heinz began her modeling career at the tender age of twelve. After spending fifteen years drooling over forbidden foods, she does the unthinkable. She enrolls in culinary school and becomes a pastry chef. After a nasty breakup with her rock star boyfriend that leads to tabloid war, Tara takes a job at a rural lodge in Oregon to escape the spotlight she no longer desires. James Cavanaugh is a farmer in Oregon. His days are spent building his business and his nights are spent sleeping, so he can get up at four in the morning. 

From creative visionary Lena Waithe and Hillman Grad Productions (Queen & Slim and The Chi) comes a Hollywood story you rarely get to hear. Introducing Kym, Audible’s brand-new, raw as hell, heartfelt comedy starring Kym Whitley.

‘A superb satirical novelist’ WASHINGTON POST In a provocative novel addressing contemporary immigration by the sharply observant Lionel Shriver, a New York family takes in a Honduran migrant – who may or may not be the innocent paragon she claims to be. ‘An incendiary provocateur’...

Selected for the March 2026 Indie Next List! One tiny pill. The promise of a mind-blowing orgasm. Are you coming? What if there was a pill that gave you the most intense sexual release of your life – would you take it? On the brink of graduation, Arvy Keening is ready for her life to begin...

Read brilliantly by Laura Aikman (Gavin and Stacey) HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO FOR A YEAR OFF WORK . . . ? 'The comedy gold standard' – Stylist 'This book will make you guffaw out loud' – Prima 'It’s one that’s sure to have you laughing and crying in equal measures' – Express Meet Barri...

'SPIKY, WITTY' PANDORA SYKES 'FUNNY, PACY’ GUARDIAN 'CHAOTIC, SNARKY, VERY FUNNY' GOOD HOUSEKEEPING 'AN ABSOLUTELY WILD RIDE' INDEPENDENT A 'HOTTEST, MUST-READ NEW BOOK FOR 2025' IN SUNDAY TIMES, STYLIST, INDEPENDENT AND SERVICE95 Maybe having a few enemies on the school run means you're doing...

Mum always knows best… The stunning debut for fans of Celia Imrie and Dawn French. Meet the daughters of Iris Parker. Dee; sensitive and big-hearted; Rose uptight and controlled and Fleur the reckless free spirit. At the reading of their mother’s will, the three estranged women are aghast to...

AN OBSERVER BEST DEBUT NOVEL 2025 SHORTLISTED FOR NOVEL OF THE YEAR AT THE AN POST IRISH BOOK AWARDS LONGLISTED FOR THE GORDON BURN PRIZE 'What a joy it is to read' Michael Magee, author of Close to Home 'I couldn't put this book down' Sheena Patel, author of I'm A Fan 'Powerful, moving...

What happens when fate says 'go'? Lost & Found meets The Rosie Project in a stunning break-out novel where a vulnerable misfit is forced to re-engage with the world, despite her best efforts. Meet Mercy Blain, whose house has just burnt down. Unfortunately for Mercy, this goes beyond the...

Everyone in Cape Cod thinks that Mother is a wonderful woman: pious, hardworking, frugal. Everyone except her husband and seven children. To them she is a selfish and petty tyrant, endlessly comparing her many living children to the one who died in childbirth, keeping a viselike hold on her offspring even as they try to escape into adulthood. Welcome to Mother Land: a suffocating kingdom of parental narcissism.

The Sunday Times number one bestselling debut novel ‘Absolutely outrageous. A total snigger-fest.’ SINDHU VEE 'Unputdownable. Thoroughly enjoyable and twisted.' KATERINA DIAMOND Welcome to a hen do where revenge is served colder than a frozen margarita… Cara Carmichael’s bestie is...

“Lively and evocative, Mother Land is a deftly crafted exploration of identity and culture, with memorable and deeply human characters who highlight how that which makes us different can ultimately unite us.”—Amy Myerson, author of The Bookshop of Yesterdays and The Imperfects From the...