In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn't have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents' sacrifices. She can't persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough.Until Frida has a very bad day.The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgment, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother's devotion.Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good.A searing page-turner that is also a transgressive novel of ideas about the perils of "perfect" upper-middle-class parenting; the violence enacted upon women by both the state and, at times, one another; the systems that separate families; and the boundlessness of love, The School for Good Mothers introduces, in Frida, an everywoman for the ages. Using dark wit to explore the pains and joys of the deepest ties that bind us, Chan has written a modern literary classic.

THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD AND EVIL is now a major motion picture from Netflix, starring Academy Award winner Charlize Theron, Kerry Washington, Laurence Fishburne, Michelle Yeoh, Cate Blanchett, and many more! A dark and enchanting fantasy adventure for those who prefer fairytales with a twist. The first in the bestselling series.

"Set in near-future America, The School for Good Mothers introduces readers to a government-run reform program where bad mothers are retrained using robot doll children with artificial intelligence. Protagonist Frida Liu, a 39-year-old Chinese-American single mother in Philadelphia, loses custody of her 18-month-old daughter, Harriet, after she leaves Harriet home alone for two hours on one very bad day. To regain custody, Frida must spend a year at a newly-created institution, where she practices parenting with bad mothers from all over the county. There, she learns to love an uncannily life-like toddler girl doll in order to demonstrate her maternal instincts and prove to her family court judge that she deserves a second chance. Frida is an outsider in every way: better educated, more affluent, and the only Asian. The mothers, whose transgressions range from benign to horrific, are under constant surveillance. If they don't pass all the school's tests, their parental rights will be terminated. Inspired by dystopian classics such as 1984, Never Let Me Go, and The Handmaid's Tale, the novel eviscerates the dominant American parenting culture, while highlighting the tragedy of state-sponsored family separation. Is there one right way to mother? Can a bad mother ever be redeemed? With warmth, heart, and dark humor, the novel tells a timeless story of a mother fighting to win back her child, and her struggle to hold onto her integrity while being indoctrinated"--

Frida Liu is an anxiety-prone, 39-year-old, Chinese-American single mom living in a Philadelphia much like ours when she is reported, after a spate of sleepless nights with her 18-month-old, for leaving her daughter alone for a stretch of time she later calls her Very Bad Day. Yet there is no room in Frida's world for bad days, let alone bad mothers, according to the state's increasingly empowered Child Protective Services which seamlessly takes Harriet and sets about surveilling Frida's home. After a series of almost comically bad supervised visits, a judge deems Frida temporarily unfit. Her only hope for continuing to share custody of Harriet with her ex (and his doting girlfriend) is to pass exams meted out by a prized new government program. This twelve-month, live-in program, a 'school' situated on an abandoned college campus, will retrain Frida (and other bad mothers from across the county) in how best to parent. Stunning and fearless, THE SCHOOL FOR GOOD MOTHERS gazes, with an ear for beauty and even occasional macabre humor, into an abyss some may find too dark to even fathom, yet which others face regularly, one way or another. Literary but with thriller-like stakes, it is a book, a la its protagonist, that refuses to be merely one thing as it pulls the reader along. Part a work refracting the realities of mothers and children caught by the existing child protective system, part a brilliant philosophical exploration of both desire and whether a 'bad mother' can ever be redeemed, part a biting evisceration of 'ideal' upper-middle class 'American' parenting (from the perspective of a character raised by immigrant parents), Chan's debut also at times, as increasingly feels necessary to reflect the experience of a person, let alone a woman, living in the world, invokes horror and the speculative to create profound emotional resonance.

Frida Liu berusaha keras memperbaiki hidupnya. Dia tidak memiliki karier yang sepadan dengan pengorbanan yang dilakukan orangtuanya, yang merupakan imigran asal Cina di Amerika; dan tidak bisa meyakinkan sang suami untuk meninggalkan selingkuhannya. Hanya ketika bersama Harriet, putri kecilnya yang cantik, Frida bisa merasa sempurna. Mungkin Harriet-lah satu-satunya yang dia miliki, dan itu sudah cukup. Hingga Frida mengalami hari yang nahasÉ. Pejabat pemerintah mengincar para ibu yang lalai seperti Frida. Menurut pihak berwenang, Frida melakukan kesalahan fatal. Frida diwajibkan untuk mengikuti pelatihan khusus, untuk mengukur apakah dia layak disebut sebagai ibu yang baik, atau malah dianggap sebagai orangtua yang jahat. Karena dihadapkan pada kemungkinan akan kehilangan Harriet, Frida pun harus membuktikan bahwa setiap kesalahannya bisa ditebus, dan semua pencapaiannya akan mendapatkan imbalan yang setimpal.

In an ideal world, mothers would have time to hand-sew their kids' costumes for the school play, prepare all-organic meals, and volunteer in the classroom at the drop of a hat. In reality, most moms have to settle for plopping their little ones in front of SpongeBob so that they can prepare yet another chicken nugget-based dinner, guiltily convinced they're falling down on the job. In Good-Enough Mother, René Syler pulls back the curtain to reveal the truth about modern mothering and reassure time-stressed moms that even if their children are strangers to made-from-scratch cookies, they can emerge as happy, well-adjusted, fully functioning members of society. Mother to two great kids of her own, Syler explains how she learned to chuck perfection for practicality -- in short, how she became a Good-Enough Mother. She shows other women seeking to balance family, work, and some semblance of a personal life how to happily join the ranks of Good-Enough Mothers, who occasionally serve breakfast for dinner yet give their children plenty of what really matters -- love, time, and support. Each essay provides welcome empathy and sage advice on navigating life's different obstacles, whether it's dealing with annoying Supermoms, bluffing through a third grader's math homework, or coping with the words that strike terror into every parent's heart ("Your son's teacher on line one"). Offering real wisdom tempered with humor and warmth, Good-Enough Mother will have every modern mom laughing in relief and recognition.