Title: The Mothers by Genevieve Gannon
Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks
Genre: Contemporary, Women’s Fiction
Length: 384 pages
Book Rating:
Complimentary Review Copy Provided by Publisher Through Edelweiss
Summary:
What if you gave birth to someone else’s child? An emotional family drama about two couples, one baby, and an unimaginable choice. Inspired by a real-life case of an IVF laboratory mix-up.
Grace and Dan Arden are in their forties and have been on the IVF treadmill since the day they got married. Six attempts have yielded no results, and with each failure a little piece of their hope dies.
Priya Laghari and her husband Nick Archer are being treated at the same fertility clinic, and while they don’t face the same time pressure as the Ardens, the younger couple have their own problems.
On the same day that Priya is booked for her next IVF cycle, Grace goes in for her final, last-chance embryo transfer. Two weeks later, both women get their results.
A year on, angry and heartbroken, one of the women learns her embryo was implanted in the other’s uterus and must make a devastating choice: live a childless life knowing her son is being raised by strangers or seek custody of a baby who has been nurtured and loved by another couple.
Review:
The Mothers by Genevieve Gannon is an incredibly emotional novel that deals with the difficult subject of infertility.
Grace and Dan Arden are in their forties and have been trying to conceive for several months. Grace is desperate for a baby but she is afraid to get her hopes up too high. They have undergone several IVF cycles but have yet to have a successful cycle. Grace is willing to try just about anything to achieve pregnancy but Dan is a little more circumspect. With time running out for them, Grace and Dan are willing to take one last chance in order to achieve their dream of parenthood.
Priya Laghari and her husband Nick Archer are in their thirties and they have been together since university. Priya and Dan went through a bit of a rough patch several years earlier but their marriage seems to be on solid ground. They are both stressed as they undergo infertility treatments. Just as they are accepted at a new fertility clinic, Priya latest suspicions about Nick prove to be true. Unsure about everything except her desire to be a mother, she does not let her worries prevent her from continuing with the IVF.
Both families’ anguish over their infertility rings true. Grace and Priya experience the emotional ups and downs along with their respective husbands. The weeks between their embryo transfer until they find out if they are pregnant are full of tension and fear. As the two families go through the next stages of their lives, neither are prepared for the shocking turn of events awaiting them.
Based on a real-life case, The Mothers is a deeply touching novel that tugs on the heartstrings. The characters are vibrantly developed with easy to relate to weaknesses and strengths. The storyline is well-written and takes the characters (and readers) through a full gamut of emotions. With unanticipated twists and turns, Genevieve Gannon brings this poignant novel to an uplifting conclusion.
