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The Abandoners

Of Mothers and Monsters

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The Abandoners

By: Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, Lizzie Davis - translator
Narrated by: Emma Pennant-Rea
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About this listen

‘The best kind of book: the one you didn’t know you were craving until it appeared . . . self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it’ JIA TOLENTINO

‘A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz tells the stories with such intelligence and wit and generosity’ TESSA HADLEY

‘Fascinating … I suspect there are many, many other mothers who are going to inhale The AbandonersOBSERVER

When it comes to children: a man leaves, a woman abandons

Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Maria Montessori, Joni Mitchell … what did they give up to become the women they were to the world?

During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who were able to overcome both society’s judgement and their own maternal instincts in order to leave their children. More than anything, she was fascinated by her own prejudice towards these women, so clearly tied up in a much wider cultural bias.

Using famous examples including Doris Lessing, fictional ones such as Anna Karenina, and interrogating modern trends like Momfluencers, Begoña reveals what our judgement of these women tells us about our judgement of all women.

‘The best book I've read on the implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti's Motherhood’ CLAUDIA DURASTANTI

©2024 Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, Lizzie Davis (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers
Authors Dysfunctional Families Motherhood Relationships Women
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Critic reviews

'Anyone who has ever judged a mother or been judged for being one will benefit from reading this book. Mothers are so much more than the boxes we put them in. This generous and rigorous work seamlessly connects real and fictional women, while offering an expansive view of a sensitive topic' MICHELE FILGATE, author of WHAT MY MOTHER AND I DON'T TALK ABOUT

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The Reality of Motherhood

I really liked this book which is clear and informative and relatable.

Having a child gives but truthfully also takes so much from women.

I love my child with all my heart and I fear the rapidly approaching day they leave home but I long for it too.

Many types of women including those who leave their children to earn money are considered.

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