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The Mothers
- A Novel
- Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
- Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
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The Mothers
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Summary
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.
Critic reviews
"Brit Bennett is the real thing. The Mothers is a stellar novel—moving, thoughtful. Stunning. I couldn’t put it down. I’m so excited to have this brilliant new voice in the world."–Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award-winning author of Brown Girl Dreaming and Another Brooklyn
"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
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What listeners say about The Mothers
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Wandel
- 20-05-21
Allright
The story is nice for a debut but didn’t sweep me away. And the reader was not my reader. She so explicitly articulated all words separately. Things like ‘they’d’ are pronounced as two words. Annoyed me. Still I finished the book so it wasn’t too bad.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 09-08-20
engaging story
enjoyed listening to this story . loved the ending
characters face heartening life challenges successfully
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 22-06-23
Beautifully written and very moving.
I loved this book. The characters and their relationships are really believable. I look forward to reading some more from Brit Bennett.
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Dohm64
- 15-09-20
Abortion thread felt pro-life and 1-dimensional
This story turns out to be about how an abortion unravels an entire community and I wasn’t expecting that as a contemporary arch. Having LOVED The Vanishing Half, this felt very different
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Punam Madan Patel
- 16-11-20
Emotional and well written
Great story about 2 young girls and their relationships with their mothers and how it affects their lives. The narration is really good and the book is excellent with emotional prose. Easy to listen to.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Ebony
- 09-03-24
Motherhood
Maybe because I’m about to become a mother, I felt the truth in the stories of all the characters in a way not all books can deliver.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Yellow
- 08-06-21
Interesting journey into motherhood
The story of ’unpregnant’ mothers and their daughters is how I’d describe this book. Are mothers who abandon their children trying to make themselves ‘unpregnant’? The way young girls and women make themselves ‘unpregnant’ through abortion? What’s the cost of cutting that cord between a mother and her child? These are the questions this tender book asks. This is a story so delicately woven. The church mothers as the chorus the final arbiter of this story is so poignant. They live on and on in every generation each dying and then rebirthing.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- miss kishma samuel
- 15-07-20
loved it
i loved it. such a love story between generations and different types of love. Was captivated from the first chapter until the last.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 03-07-23
Brilliant
I can’t believe this book sat in my wishlist for so long. It was so good!
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance2 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 05-12-23
Stilted performance
The story was good. Not nearly as good as the authors next book The vanishing half. The readers voice irked me. It was like there was a full stop after each individual word.
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