`With delicately drawn characters, Shahnaz Bashir tells the heartbreaking story of one woman?s battle for life, dignity and justice.? ? Mirza Waheed, author of The Collaborator `The night is tired now, the old moon, hanging in the dark sky, is tired too? It is the 1990s, and Kashmir?s long war has begun to claim its first victims. Among them are Ghulam Rasool Joo, Haleema?s father, and her teenage son Imran, who is picked up by the authorities only to disappear into the void of Kashmir?s missing people. The Half Mother is the story of Haleema ? a mother and a daughter yesterday, a `half mother? and an orphan today; tormented by not knowing whether Imran is dead or alive, torn apart by her own lonely existence. While she battles for answers and seeks out torture camps, jails and morgues for any signs of Imran, Kashmir burns in a war that will haunt it for years to come. Heart-wrenching, deeply troubling and written in lyrical prose, The Half Mother marks the debut of a bold new voice from Kashmir.'

‘With delicately drawn characters, Shahnaz Bashir tells the heartbreaking story of one woman’s battle for life, dignity and justice.’ – Mirza Waheed, author of The Collaborator ‘The night is tired now, the old moon, hanging in the dark sky, is tired too’ It is the 1990s, and Kashmir’s long war has begun to claim its first victims. Among them are Ghulam Rasool Joo, Haleema’s father, and her teenage son Imran, who is picked up by the authorities only to disappear into the void of Kashmir’s missing people. The Half Mother is the story of Haleema – a mother and a daughter yesterday, a ‘half mother’ and an orphan today; tormented by not knowing whether Imran is dead or alive, torn apart by her own lonely existence. While she battles for answers and seeks out torture camps, jails and morgues for any signs of Imran, Kashmir burns in a war that will haunt it for years to come. Heart-wrenching, deeply troubling and written in lyrical prose, The Half Mother marks the debut of a bold new voice from Kashmir.'

Longlisted for the 2022 International Booker Prize A New York Times Notable Book A Library Journal Best Book of 2021 A “marvelous…superbly effective” (The New Yorker) debut novel about a young woman coming of age with a dazzling yet damaged mother who lived and loved in extremes. Met by rave reviews in The New Yorker, The New York Times, and more, this stunning translation of Violaine Huisman’s “witty, immersive autofiction showcases a Parisian childhood with a charismatic, depressed parent” (Oprah Daily). Beautiful and magnetic, Catherine, a.k.a. “Maman,” smokes too much, drives too fast, laughs too hard, and loves too extravagantly, and her daughter Violaine wouldn’t have it any other way. But when Maman is hospitalized after a third divorce and a breakdown, everything changes. Even as Violaine and her sister long for their mother’s return, once she’s back Maman’s violent mood swings and flagrant disregard for personal boundaries soon turn their home into an emotional landmine. As the story of Catherine’s own traumatic childhood and adolescence unfolds, the pieces come together to form an indelible portrait of a mother as irresistible as she is impossible, as triumphant as she is transgressive. With spectacular ferocity of language, a streak of dark humor, and stunning emotional bravery, The Book of Mother is an exquisitely wrought story of a mother’s dizzying heights and devastating lows, and a daughter who must hold her memory close in order to surrender, and finally move on.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF BARACK OBAMA'S FAVORITE BOOKS OF THE YEAR NAMED A BEST BOOK OF 2020 BY THE NEW YORK TIMES * THE WASHINGTON POST * NPR * PEOPLE * TIME MAGAZINE* VANITY FAIR * GLAMOUR 2021 WOMEN'S PRIZE FINALIST “Bennett’s tone and style recalls James Baldwin and Jacqueline Woodson, but it’s especially reminiscent of Toni Morrison’s 1970 debut novel, The Bluest Eye.” —Kiley Reid, Wall Street Journal “A story of absolute, universal timelessness …For any era, it's an accomplished, affecting novel. For this moment, it's piercing, subtly wending its way toward questions about who we are and who we want to be….” – Entertainment Weekly From The New York Times-bestselling author of The Mothers, a stunning new novel about twin sisters, inseparable as children, who ultimately choose to live in two very different worlds, one black and one white. The Vignes twin sisters will always be identical. But after growing up together in a small, southern black community and running away at age sixteen, it's not just the shape of their daily lives that is different as adults, it's everything: their families, their communities, their racial identities. Many years later, one sister lives with her black daughter in the same southern town she once tried to escape. The other secretly passes for white, and her white husband knows nothing of her past. Still, even separated by so many miles and just as many lies, the fates of the twins remain intertwined. What will happen to the next generation, when their own daughters' storylines intersect? Weaving together multiple strands and generations of this family, from the Deep South to California, from the 1950s to the 1990s, Brit Bennett produces a story that is at once a riveting, emotional family story and a brilliant exploration of the American history of passing. Looking well beyond issues of race, The Vanishing Half considers the lasting influence of the past as it shapes a person's decisions, desires, and expectations, and explores some of the multiple reasons and realms in which people sometimes feel pulled to live as something other than their origins. As with her New York Times-bestselling debut The Mothers, Brit Bennett offers an engrossing page-turner about family and relationships that is immersive and provocative, compassionate and wise.

When cutting-edge portrait photographer and documentarian Ali Smith set out to explore contemporary motherhood, she was determined to capture not only its great joys but its conflicts, compromises, messiness, and unpredictable mix of emotions—and to allow a wide range of fascinating women to tell their stories in their own voices. The result is a cinematic blend of Smith’s bold photography and the enthralling words of real women caught in the midst of real life at its most intense. Among the mothers you’ll meet inMomma Loveare Oscar-nominated actress Amy Ryan, who talks about being a mother in image-obsessed Hollywood; rock musician Alyson Palmer, who has taken both of her children on tour for years for what she calls “road schooling”; and Deborah Kopaken Cogan, who traded her harrowing life as a war photographer for the challenges of motherhood—enduring criticism as a “quitter” from her colleagues and the media. They are just a few of Ali’s subjects, who come from a wide range of backgrounds and places but share a penchant for honest self-reflection. PerusingMomma Loveis like entering into an honest, gutsy conversation that women of all ages will want to join, whether they are just curious about motherhood; contemplating it in earnest, as the author was when she began her journey; or deep in the throes of it. It is also for fans of great documentary photography that sticks in the mind and heart forever.

From Koren Zailckas, author of the iconic memoir SMASHED: an electrifying debut novel about a family being torn apart by the woman who claims to love them most Josephine Hurst has her family under control. With two beautiful daughters, a brilliantly intelligent son, a tech-guru of a husband, and a historical landmark home, her life is picture perfect. But living in this matriarch’s determinedly cheerful, yet subtly controlling domain hasn’t been easy for her family, and when her oldest daughter, Rose, runs off with a mysterious boyfriend, Josephine tightens her grip, gradually turning her flawless home into a darker sort of prison. Resentful of her sister’s newfound freedom, Violet turns to eastern philosophy, hallucinogenic drugs, and extreme fasting, eventually landing herself in a psych ward. Meanwhile, her brother, Will, recently diagnosed with Asperger's, shrinks further into a world of self-doubt. Their father, Douglas, finds resolve in the bottom of a bottle—an addict craving his own chance to escape. Josephine struggles to maintain the family’s impeccable façade, but when a violent incident leads to a visit from child protective services, the truth about the Hursts might finally be revealed. Now with Extra Libris material, including a reader’s guide and bonus content