The Mothers: A Novel

by Brit Bennett Narrated by Adenrele Ojo

Overview

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER*

“Bittersweet, sexy, morally fraught.” -The New York Times Book Review

"Fantastic... a book that feels alive on the page."*-The Washington Post

From the New York-Times bestselling author of The Vanishing Half, the beloved novel about young love and a big secret in a small community.*

Set within a contemporary black community in Southern California, Brit Bennett's mesmerizing first novel is an emotionally perceptive story about community, love, and ambition. It begins with a secret.

"All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season."

It is the last season of high school life for Nadia Turner, a rebellious, grief-stricken, seventeen-year-old beauty. Mourning her own mother's recent suicide, she takes up with the local pastor's son. Luke Sheppard is twenty-one, a former football star whose injury has reduced him to waiting tables at a diner. They are young; it's not serious. But the pregnancy that results from this teen romance-and the subsequent cover-up-will have an impact that goes far beyond their youth. As Nadia hides her secret from everyone, including Aubrey, her God-fearing best friend, the years move quickly. Soon, Nadia, Luke, and Aubrey are full-fledged adults and still living in debt to the choices they made that one seaside summer, caught in a love triangle they must carefully maneuver, and dogged by the constant, nagging question: What if they had chosen differently? The possibilities of the road not taken are a relentless haunt.

In entrancing, lyrical prose, The Mothers asks whether a "what if" can be more powerful than an experience itself. If, as time passes, we must always live in servitude to the decisions of our younger selves, to the communities that have parented us, and to the decisions we make that shape our lives forever.

Editorial Reviews

OCTOBER 2016 - AudioFile

Do the decisions we made in our youth shape the rest of our lives? Brit Bennett’s absorbing debut novel, set in Southern California’s black community, gets a sensitive narration by Adenrele Ojo. The lives of three damaged teens intertwine and reconnect when they meet again as adults. Nadia, Aubrey, and Luke have a secret. "All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season." Ojo’s voice is smooth as honey and prickly as thistles when portraying the gossipy mothers who relentlessly poke at the secret until nothing remains hidden. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

"Brit Bennett's masterful debut is brimming with unforgettable scenes and the sort of keenly-observed, precise language that makes you look at your own relationships anew. Told with the wisdom of a seasoned, compassionate storyteller, The Mothers is a novel about community, friendship, grief and growth. The two women at the center of this novel are characters you will find yourself thinking about long after you've turned the last page— they pull you in close and never let you go. Bennett is a brilliant and much-needed new voice in literature." –Angela Flournoy, author of National Book Award-finalist The Turner House
 
"Brit Bennett’s The Mothers is a brilliant exploration of friendship, desire, inheritance, the love we seek, and the love we settle for. It is the kind of book that from its first page seduces you into knowing that the heartbreak coming will be worth it." –Danielle Evans, author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool Self

"Brit Bennett’s The Mothers is an engaging and assured debut novel of depth, and introspective power. It succeeds as a brilliant study of a modern black woman, and as a lyrical and majestic portrait of her place in society." —Chigozie Obioma, author of The Fishermen

OCTOBER 2016 - AudioFile

Do the decisions we made in our youth shape the rest of our lives? Brit Bennett’s absorbing debut novel, set in Southern California’s black community, gets a sensitive narration by Adenrele Ojo. The lives of three damaged teens intertwine and reconnect when they meet again as adults. Nadia, Aubrey, and Luke have a secret. "All good secrets have a taste before you tell them, and if we'd taken a moment to swish this one around our mouths, we might have noticed the sourness of an unripe secret, plucked too soon, stolen and passed around before its season." Ojo’s voice is smooth as honey and prickly as thistles when portraying the gossipy mothers who relentlessly poke at the secret until nothing remains hidden. S.J.H. Winner of AudioFile Earphones Award © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Product Details

BN ID:	2940171905958
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/11/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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