Items related to The Mistress's Daughter, a Memoir

The Mistress's Daughter, a Memoir - Softcover

 
9781862079755: The Mistress's Daughter, a Memoir
View all copies of this ISBN edition:
 
 
An acclaimed novelist’s riveting memoir about what it means to be adopted and how all of us construct our sense of self and family

Before A.M. Homes was born, she was put up for adoption. Her birth mother was a twenty-two- year-old single woman who was having an affair with a much older married man with children of his own. The Mistress’s Daughter is the story of what happened when, thirty years later, her birth parents came looking for her.

Homes, renowned for the psychological accuracy and emotional intensity of her storytelling, tells how her birth parents initially made contact with her and what happened afterward (her mother stalked her and appeared unannounced at a reading) and what she was able to reconstruct about the story of their lives and their families. Her birth mother, a complex and lonely woman, never married or had another child, and died of kidney failure in 1998; her birth father, who initially made overtures about inviting her into his family, never did.

Then the story jumps forward several years to when Homes opens the boxes of her mother’s memorabilia. She had hoped to find her mother in those boxes, to know her secrets, but no relief came. She became increasingly obsessed with finding out as much as she could about all four parents and their families, hiring researchers and spending hours poring through newspaper morgues, municipal archives and genealogical Web sites. This brave, daring, and funny book is a story about what it means to be adopted, but it is also about identity and how all of us define our sense of self and family.

"synopsis" may belong to another edition of this title.

About the Author:
A.M. Homes is the author of several books of fiction. She has been awarded a Guggenheim and National Endowment for the Arts fellowships, and is a contributing editor at Vanity Fair.
From AudioFile:
A.M. Homes always knew she was adopted. When she was 31, her biological mother initiated contact with her, the daughter she gave away. Jane Adams gives an extraordinary performance, bringing to life the almost clinical objectivity Homes employs throughout the first two-thirds of this memoir as she reassesses her identity after her biological mother turns her life upside down. The final third of the book spirals downward into rage over her father's broken promise to invite her into his family. Adams puts all that anger into her performance. After 22 minutes of asking questions without answers in a voice that becomes more and more hate-filled, Adams leaves the listener exhausted and full of pity for all the players in this sad story. N.E.M © AudioFile 2007, Portland, Maine-- Copyright © AudioFile, Portland, Maine

"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.

  • PublisherGranta Books
  • Publication date2007
  • ISBN 10 1862079757
  • ISBN 13 9781862079755
  • BindingPaperback
  • Number of pages256
  • Rating

Other Popular Editions of the Same Title

9780143113317: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir

Featured Edition

ISBN 10:  ISBN 13:  9780143113317
Publisher: Penguin Books, 2008
Softcover

9781847080110: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir

Granta..., 2008
Softcover

9780670038381: The Mistress's Daughter: A Memoir

Viking, 2007
Hardcover

9781862079304: The Mistress's Daughter

Granta..., 2007
Hardcover

9780786298150: The Mistress's Daughter (Thorndike Press Large Print Biography Series)

Thornd..., 2007
Hardcover

Top Search Results from the AbeBooks Marketplace

Stock Image

A. M. Homes
Published by Viking (2007)
ISBN 10: 1862079757 ISBN 13: 9781862079755
New Softcover Quantity: 3
Seller:

Book Description Condition: New. Fine. Paperback. 2007. This is an imported edition. Seller Inventory # W111955b

More information about this seller | Contact seller

Buy New
US$ 7.50
Convert currency

Add to Basket

Shipping: US$ 4.00
Within U.S.A.
Destination, rates & speeds