What My Mother And I Don't Talk About: Fifteen Writers Break The Silence

"“Our mothers are our first homes, and that’s why we’re always trying to return to them,” editor Michele Filgate writes in this book’s first essay. Our mothers are also our first heroes – and therefore it feels like a deep betrayal when we learn they are mere mortals. Each essay – from writers such as Carmen Maria Machado, André Aciman, Kiese Laymon and Leslie Jamison – is a portrait of a fracture. For some, it’s a hairline – the fissure undetectable to an outsider’s eye. For others, there’s a wide gulf where the two sides used to touch. The wounds in these stories are painfully detailed, but so is, in equal measure, the love. If you’re feeling bold, the book is a potent conversation starter. But at the very least, it’s 15 voices saying: “You’re not alone.”"