Mother and Child: A Novel

A literary mediation on life and death, being and non–being, and the intense mystery and beauty of existence between a mother and child.

“Heartbreakingly perfect” (San Francisco Chronicle), Maso’s moving, dreamlike novel follows a mother and child as they roam through wondrous and increasingly dangerous psychic and physical terrain. A great wind comes, an ancient tree splits in half, and a bat, or possibly an angel, enters the house where the mother and child sleep, and in an instant a world of relentless change, of spectacular consequences, of submerged memory, and uncanny intimations is set into motion. What was once hidden is now in plain sight in all its splendor and terror as the mother and child are asked to bear enormous transformations and a terrible wisdom almost impossible to fathom. As the outside can no longer be separated from the inside, nor dream from reality, the mother and child continue, encountering along the way all kinds of characters and creatures as they move through a surreal world of grace and dread to the end.

“The tough–mindedness, originality and wit of her perceptions are intoxicating.”—Publisher Weekly

“By giving the conflicts in her life a fictional context, she tries to bring order and beauty—and some degree of understanding—to chaos.”—Library Journal

“Fully coherent, moving and elegiac, a genuine consolation.” —The New York Times Book Review