Mother Mother - Annie Macmanus

Mother Mother is a powerful coming-of-age novel and an intimate family study. It's about finding light in dark places, and it examines the cost of unconditional love.

Mary McConnell grew up longing for information about the mother she never knew, who died suddenly when Mary was only a baby. Her brother Sean was barely old enough to remember, and their father numbed his pain with drink.

Now aged thirty-five, Mary has lived in the same house her whole life. She's never left Belfast. She has a son, TJ, who's about to turn eighteen, and is itching to see more of the world.

One Saturday morning, TJ wakes up to find his mother gone. He doesn't know where - or why - but he's the only one who can help find her.

Mother Mother takes us down the challenging road of Mary's life, while following TJ's increasingly desperate search for his mother, as he begins to understand what has led her to this point.

This is a gritty, affecting novel about family, grief, addiction, and motherhood. And it asks the question - if you spend your life giving everything to the ones you love; do you risk losing yourself along the way?