The Other Mother

January 8, 2018
Daphne Marist, the unreliable narrator of this chilling tale from Goodman (The Widow’s House), takes her baby and flees her domineering husband for a job as live-in archivist for elusive author Schuyler Bennett, whose Catskills mansion borders the grounds of a psychiatric institution. Daphne has a secret, though. The name and background she’s provided to Schuyler belong to her friend Laurel Hobbes, whom she met at a Westchester support group for new mothers. Excerpts from both women’s journals describe an obsessive friendship in which their identities blurred together until Daphne’s climactic decision to leave. Either Daphne’s postpartum depression has led to a complete break with reality, or else she’s the target of a sinister plot—and only an elderly woman, confined to the institution for 45 years after abandoning her own baby, can help her discover the truth. Despite sometimes troubling depictions of mental illness and an implausible coincidence at the center of the plot, this engrossing novel will keep readers eagerly turning the pages. Agent: Robin Rue, Writers House.

February 1, 2018

Daphne Marist meets Laurel Hobbes at a new mother's group, where they discover both their babies are named Chloe. This tenuous connection is enough to bring the two women together in the foggy days of new motherhood. The overtones of Greek myth carry on throughout the twisty plot involving mistaken identities, madness, and motherly love. Eventually, Daphne takes Chloe and flees her controlling husband, finding a temporary job as a writer's private secretary under an assumed name. Her employer's country home backs onto a psychiatric hospital, which Daphne's father had once run. This institution looms large both in imagination and reality, especially once Daphne is accused of really being Laurel and is committed as a patient. She begins questioning her own sense of reality, even while finding allies among the staff and other inmates. Goodman's (The Lake of Dead Languages) characteristic gothic elements--an isolated country house, academics, women in danger--meld especially well with the untrustworthy spouses and endangered children of domestic suspense. Secrets from the past are played out just slowly enough to tantalize the reader, but are complex enough to create a believable plot. VERDICT An engaging read that will appeal to readers of Shari Lapena or Michelle Richmond.--Melanie Kindrachuk, Stratford P.L., Ont.

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