Motherless Mothers: How Mother Loss Shapes the Parents We Be

Written by Hope Edelman

Narrated by Hope Edelman

When Hope Edelman published Motherless Daughters about the long-term effects of early mother loss, the book touched a nerve in women across the country, and went on to become an enduring New York Times bestseller. Edelman, who was seventeen when her own mother died, told the collective story of mother loss with such candor, empathy, and informed wisdom that she quickly became a widely recognized expert on the topic.

But when she became a parent, she found herself revisiting her loss in ways she had never anticipated. Now the mother of two young girls, Edelman set out to learn how the loss of a mother to death or abandonment affects the ways women raise their own children. From her exhaustive investigation comes Motherless Mothers, the enlightening and inspiring next step in the motherless journey.

Using her own story as a prism, Edelman reveals the unique anxieties and desires these mothers experience as they raise their children without the help of a living maternal guide. She examines their parenting choices, their unexpected triumphs, and their fears, illuminating how the experience of loss directly impacts the ways in which these women parent their own children. This impeccably researched and luminously written book offers motherless mothers the guidance and support they want and need.

• Language: English
• Publisher: HarperAudio
• Release date: Apr 4, 2006
• ISBN: 9780061152993

Hope Edelman

Hope Edelman is the internationally acclaimed author of six nonfiction books, including the bestsellers Motherless Daughters, Motherless Mothers, and the memoir The Possibility of Everything, as well as the recent ebook, Boys Like That. She has lectured widely on the subjects of early mother loss and nonfiction writing in the U.S., Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the U.A.E. Her articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Glamour, Child, Seventeen, Real Simple, Parents, Writer's Digest, and Self, and her original essays have appeared in many anthologies, including The Bitch in the House, Behind the Bedroom Door, and Goodbye to All That. Her work has received a New York Times notable book of the year designation and a Pushcart Prize for creative nonfiction. She can be found in Iowa City every July teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. The rest of the year, she lives in Topanga Canyon, California, with her husband and their two daughters, and teaches in the MFA program at Antioch University-LA.