A luminous and courageous
story about the hopes and dreams we all have for our lives and relationships,
and the often fraught and unexpected ways they may be realised.
Angela Savage draws us masterfully into the lives of Anna, an aid
worker trying to settle back into life in Australia after more than a decade in
Southeast Asia; Meg, Anna’s sister, who holds out hope for a child despite
seven fruitless years of IVF; Meg's husband Nate, and Mukda, a single mother in
provincial Thailand who wants to do the right thing by her son and parents.
The women and their families' lives
become intimately intertwined in the unsettling and extraordinary process of
trying to bring a child into the world across borders of class, culture and
nationality. Rich in characterisation and feeling, Mother of Pearl, and
the timely issues it raises, will generate discussion amongst readers
everywhere.
‘This is
a story of family and motherhood, and also a story of culture and exploitation
that asks us to think through the costs of our insatiable desire in the West to
have everything. What I find remarkable about this novel is how it refuses easy
and lazy judgement, how it takes seriously questions of loss, longing, and our
human need to connect with each other.’ — Christos
Tsiolkas, author of The Slap
