All My Mothers: The heart-breaking new novel from the author of the Costa-shortlisted debut, THE OTHER HALF OF AUGUSTA HOPE

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This novel is like nothing I've ever read, and I've immediately bought the author's first book as I enjoyed this one so much.

All my mothers es un libro que lo tiene completamente TODO. Empezando porque es una oda a las madres y a las hijas; a las niñas y a las jóvenes, a las adultas y a las ancianas. Es un libro de mujeres de todos los colores, como dice el libro que la pequeña Eva Martínez-Green, The Rainbow Rained Us. En él, descubre que hay madres de muchos colores y empieza a sospechar que quizás su madre, no lo sea realmente. Por lo que decide empezar su propia búsqueda y, en el camino, va encontrándose muchas madres distintas como en su libro. This book, this book is immense. We are following the story of Eva, from her first memories as a four year starting school and making a best friend, all the way through to adulthood. We see her at her best and her worst, at her highs and lows. This book doesn't pull it's punches. It felt rushed, and it lost it's punch in the most critical moment. Again, using my spainard card here, the whole bought baby moment could have been So Much More Magnanimous. There was an epidemic of doctors and nurses (nuns) that flat out stole babies from their mothers (single mothers, republicans, poor women, romani women, you get the gist) and gave said babies to rich families under the fascist wing. So yeah, by romanticising nuns who literally took away a baby from a muslim woman (with the very same practice used by fascist, stealing nuns) it doesn't really leave a good taste in my mouth. One of those rarest of books: so beautiful I almost couldn’t bear it, and so moving I was reading through tears’ STACEY HALLS I can't even say for sure how many times Glen used foreshadowing, but I feel confident enough to say that nearly every little detail has a greater significance to be found out later on. Undoubtedly, there are so many satisfying moments to be had when seemingly everything adds up. I'm in awe.I missed the author's debut novel when it was originally published, but I'm going to remedy that very soon. If it's half as good as this one, it will be wonderful. This was simply beautiful. It's narrated by Eva who grows up with the suspicion that her parents are not her birth parents (although they deny this). She's an only child who forms a firm friendship with Bridget and she is captivated by Bridget's large and loving family. Over the course the book, Eva will have a progression of mother figures in her life and will also come to understand her own story. Jonathan Holland of Variety called the film "emotionally satisfying and brilliantly played" and commented, "The emotional tone is predominantly dark and confrontational . . . But thanks to a sweetly paced and genuinely witty script, pic doesn't become depressing as it focuses on the characters' stoic resilience and good humor". [10]

Manuela is an Argentine nurse who supervises donor organ transplants at Ramón y Cajal Hospital in Madrid. She is also a single mother to Esteban, a teenager who aspires to become a writer. And here we have the disappointment of the year everyone. This one hurts because this was going to be the second best book I read in 2022 after A Certain Hunger. But no. Complaints were that the book was perhaps a little too long; and that the one-sentence paragraphs became slightly annoying after a while. Also one reader considered the idea of Eva being the only child not to be able to produce a picture of herself as a baby, for a school project, was flawed and unlikely. We discussed this and considered it to be a dubious educational practice in any case. This is the story of Eva Martínez-Green, from the day she began school, and for the next 30 years of her life. It's a story about mothers - for anyone who has been a mother, has had a mother, wants to be a mother, or even just knows a mother. It's a totally immersive story, at times painful and at others joyful, that had me ugly-crying for the last two chapters. I loved it. On Esteban's 17th birthday, he is hit and killed by a car while chasing after actress Huma Rojo for her autograph following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, where Rojo portrays Blanche DuBois. Manuela agrees with her colleagues at work that her son's heart be transplanted to a man in A Coruña. After following her son's heart to its new recipient, Manuela resigns from her job and travels to Barcelona in search of her son's father, Lola, a transgender woman whom Manuela had kept a secret from Esteban, just as she had never told Lola about their son.This book was recommended to me by a very good friend of mine and I have to admit I had my prejudices. A novel about various types of mothers? A coming-of-age story about an ordinary Spanish woman? Normally, not my cup of tea. However, this book is painfully beautiful and incomprehensibly undervalued. Let me tell you why⬇️ I was drawn into Eva’s story, and desperately wanted her to find the answers she was searching for. This is a beautifully written novel: painful in some parts, joyful in others. Wow 👏🏻 what an incredible book this is!! I just wish I hadn’t left it so long to read. It was a brilliant book.

Between her emotionally absent mother and her physically absent father, there is nobody to answer them. Eva is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why are there no baby pictures of her? Why do her parents avoid all questions about her early years? Over the years Eva has many important women in her life. Many are positive influences, such as Bridget's mother, M, and Sister Ana in Córdoba, but others are less positive. Eva realises that all of them can teach her something. Christine Orson, mother of Eva's teenage boyfriend Michael, is such an example. This is a woman who gave up her high-powered career to steer her 3 boys to their best lives, and who actually makes notes about questions to guide mealtime discussions. At Eva's first meal with the family, Christine asks them all what they consider to be their guiding principle for life. Eva's response is something she's instinctively known her whole life, but perhaps only crystallises at that point - longing. Convinced she was abducted from her home in Spain as a toddler, Eva has always longed for a loving mother, her real mother. Oh my goodness. It's 3am, I have just finished this book and I simply had to review it immediately. In Barcelona, Manuela reunites with her old friend Agrado, a transgender sex worker who is warm and witty. She also meets and becomes deeply involved with several new friends: Rosa, a young nun who works in a shelter for sex workers who have experienced violence and is pregnant with Lola's child, but is also HIV positive; Huma Rojo, the actress whom her son had admired; and Nina Cruz, Huma's co-star and lover, who is struggling with drug addiction. Manuela's life becomes entwined with theirs as she cares for Rosa during her pregnancy and works for Huma as her personal assistant. She even acts in the play as an emergency understudy for Nina during one of her drug abuse crises. All My Mothers is a captivating and heartening view of motherhood and what it means to be a mother, both within its traditional parameters, and in all its unconventional but beautiful ways. More than that, though, it is a story of unwavering female friendship throughout Eva’s life, starting from age four and on into her twenties and thirties.Eva’s search to find her “real mother” based on one photograph takes her to Córdoba in Spain. What a beautiful place!! The authors descriptions of Eva’s surroundings were perfect and have me longing to visit. Wesley Morris, Examiner Film Critic (22 December 1999). "San Francisco Examiner review". San Francisco Chronicle . Retrieved 3 February 2012. The men in the tale were mostly unhelpful, with the exceptions of Nigel, whose character is endearing, and Eva’s eventual partner. Déjenme empezar diciendo que AMÉ este libro. Aunque gran parte de la trama se centra en la maternidad, este libro también celebra la amistad entre mujeres. Sobre todo destaca cuánta historia se puede acumular entre dos personas, a tal punto que se convierten en la familia que elegimos para nosotros mismos.