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  • The Mothers

  • A Novel
  • By: Brit Bennett
  • Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
  • Length: 9 hrs and 55 mins
  • 3.8 out of 5 stars (58 ratings)

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The Mothers

By: Brit Bennett
Narrated by: Adenrele Ojo
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Publisher's 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.

©2016 Brit Bennett (P)2016 Penguin Audio

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

What listeners say about The Mothers

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  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
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    3 out of 5 stars

Great start...poor ending

Really enjoyed the first three quarters did not l8ke the ending...it could have been so much more. All through the book I had felt connected to the characters but did not feel the ending gave enough insight into their feelings and thoughts about the decisions and choices that they made in the end.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    1 out of 5 stars

Not for me

Just couldn't get into this book.
The reviews were great and was ready for the journey but unfortunately I could not persist.

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    2 out of 5 stars
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    4 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars

What was the point?

Just sort of meandered on and I didn't really care about any of the characters. The chapters with the mothers speaking seemed just inserted there for literary relief with no purpose.
I was also a bit uncomfortable that it seemed almost anti abortion??

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  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
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    2 out of 5 stars
  • Amy
  • 16-10-2017

somewhat boring, which could be it's brilliance.

not much exciting happened, if it was a physical book, I may not have finished.

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