The school for good mothers: a novel
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Language:
English
Description
Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel
Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence
Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize
Selected as One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2022!
In this New York Times bestseller and Today show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance, in this “surreal” (People), “remarkable” (Vogue), and “infuriatingly timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel.
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 eye 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 judgement, 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.
An “intense” (Oprah Daily), “captivating” (Today) 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.
Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence
Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize
Selected as One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2022!
In this New York Times bestseller and Today show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance, in this “surreal” (People), “remarkable” (Vogue), and “infuriatingly timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel.
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 eye 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 judgement, 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.
An “intense” (Oprah Daily), “captivating” (Today) 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.
More Details
Contributors:
ISBN:
9781982156138
9781797135465
9781797135472
9798200912933
9781982156145
9781797135458
9781982156121
9781797135465
9781797135472
9798200912933
9781982156145
9781797135458
9781982156121
Staff View
Grouping Information
| Grouped Work ID | d908a191-c675-31b3-81d8-d3a6a50227e0 |
|---|---|
| Grouping Title | school for good mothers |
| Grouping Author | jessamine chan |
| Grouping Category | book |
| Grouping Language | English (eng) |
| Last Grouping Update | 2023-03-23 07:35:38AM |
| Last Indexed | 2023-03-23 07:37:33AM |
Solr Fields
accelerated_reader_point_value
0
accelerated_reader_reading_level
0
auth_author2
Ho, Catherine
author
Chan, Jessamine
author2-role
Ho, Catherine,narrator
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Chan, Jessamine
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Online OverDrive Collection
display_description
"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"--Provided by publisher.
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9781797135465
9781797135472
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itype_cable
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last_indexed
2023-03-23T12:37:33.392Z
lexile_score
-1
literary_form
Fiction
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Fiction
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Online OverDrive
owning_library_cable
Cable Forest Lodge Library Online
owning_location_cable
Online OverDrive Collection
primary_isbn
9781982156138
publishDate
2022
publisher
Blackstone Publishing
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster Audio
Simon & Schuster, Inc
Simon & Schuster
Simon & Schuster Audio
Simon & Schuster, Inc
recordtype
grouped_work
subject_facet
Audiobooks
Chinese American women -- Fiction
Dystopian fiction
Large print books
Motherhood -- Fiction
Science fiction
Single mothers -- Fiction
Chinese American women -- Fiction
Dystopian fiction
Large print books
Motherhood -- Fiction
Science fiction
Single mothers -- Fiction
title_display
The school for good mothers : a novel
title_full
The School for Good Mothers: a Novel
The school for good mothers : a novel / Jessamine Chan
The school for good mothers : a novel / Jessamine Chan
title_short
The school for good mothers
title_sub
a novel
topic_facet
Chinese American women
Fiction
Literature
Motherhood
Single mothers
Fiction
Literature
Motherhood
Single mothers
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