Mother Who Stayed: Stories (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781439194652)

In nine strikingly perceptive stories set miles and decades apart, Laura Furman mines the intricate, elusive lives of mothers and daughters--and of women who long for someone to nurture. Meet Rachel, a young girl desperate for her mother's unbridled attention, knowing that soon she'll have to face the world alone; Marian, a celebrated novelist who betrays the one person willing to take care of her as she is dying--her unclaimed "daughter"; and Dinah, a childless widow uplifted by the abandoned, century-old diaries of Mary Ann, a mother of eleven.

The Mother Who Stayed is an homage to the timeless, primal bond between mother and child and a testament that the relationships we can't define can be just as poignant, memorable, and inspiring as those determined by blood. Tender and insightful, Furman's stories also bravely confront darker realities of separation and regret, death and infidelity--even murder. Her vividly imagined characters and chiseled prose close the gap between generations of women as they share their wisdom almost in chorus: Although our lives will end, we must cherish the sanctity of each day and say, as did Mary Ann ages ago, "I done what I could."

Author: Laura Furman
ISBN-10: 1439194653
ISBN-13: 9781439194652
Publisher: Free Press
Language: English
Published: 02/01/2011
Pages: 224
Format: Paperback
Weight: 0.43lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.56w x 0.58d

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 12/20/2010
Booklist 01/01/2011 pg. 42