Eye of My Heart: 27 Writers Reveal the Hidden Pleasures and Perils of Being a Grandmother

New York Times Bestseller

“Finally, a look at grandmothering that is decidedly unsentimental. These clear-eyed essays offer humor and insight as they take on the multigenerational lives many of us now lead.” –Cokie Roberts, author of We Are Our Mothers' Daughters

In this groundbreaking collection, twenty-seven smart, gutsy writers explode the clichés and tell the real stories about what it's like to be a grandmother in today's world. Among the contributors:

• Judith Viorst exposes the high-stakes competition for Most Adored Nana
• Anne Roiphe learns to keep her mouth shut and her opinions to herself
• Elizabeth Berg marvels at witnessing her child give birth to her child
• Judith Guest confesses her failed attempt to be the perfect grandmother
• Jill Nelson grapples with unforeseen mother-daughter tensions
• Ellen Gilchrist reveals how grandparenthood has eased her fear of death
• Beverly Donofrio makes amends for her shortcomings as a teenage mother
• Bharati Mukherjee transcends her Hindu upbringing to embrace her adopted Chinese granddaughters
• Mary Pipher deconstructs the role of grandmother in our changing world

With A New Epilogue by editor Barbara Graham

In this groundbreaking collection, twenty-seven smart, gutsy writers explode the clichés and tell the real stories about what it's like to be a grandmother in today's world. Among the contributors:

• Judith Viorst exposes the high-stakes competition for Most Adored Nana.
• Anne Roiphe learns to keep her mouth shut and her opinions to herself.
• Elizabeth Berg marvels at witnessing her child give birth to her child.
• Judith Guest confesses her failed attempt to be the perfect grandmother.
• Jill Nelson grapples with unforeseen mother-daughter tensions.
• Ellen Gilchrist reveals how grandparenthood has eased her fear of death.
• Beverly Donofrio makes amends for her shortcomings as a teenage mother.
• Bharati Mukherjee transcends her Hindu upbringing to embrace her adopted Chinese granddaughters.
• Mary Pipher deconstructs the role of grandmother in our changing world.

“As someone who was partly raised by my maternal grandparents and adored them, I always knew that grandmotherhood would be intense for me. But I didn’t realize that it would be such a revelation. Eye of My Heart really does what its subtitle suggests—reveals the pleasures and perils of grandmotherhood.” - Erica Jong, author of Fear of Fifty

“As many of us become the elders of our various tribes, we need stories to help us understand what is happening to us, to feel accompanied in our new roles, corroborated in our feelings and quandaries, connected with others with whom we now form that windbreaker circle of protection and nurture for those younger than us.” - Julia Alvarez, author of Return to Sender and Once Upon a Quinceañera

“Illuminating.” - People

“This collection will ring true to the grandmother who is tuned in to her own mixed emotions. . . . This is not a sugary mess. Many of the story edges are hard, even jagged, though all are washed over with wonder.” - Kandra Hahn, Lincoln Journal Star (Nebraska)

“So many different perspectives and vantage points are woven seamlessly that no matter what their personal relationship to the word ‘grandmother’ is, readers will find much to make them laugh out loud—and also to break their hearts.” - Christian Science Monitor

“Truthful and anything but sugar-coated.” - More magazine (Canada)

“In illuminating, unsentimental essays, 27 writers offer up insights on the tricky art of grandmothering.” - People

“Spry and unsentimental. . . . Truth telling with dollops of love.” - O magazine

“Insightful and candid, sometimes painfully so. . . . Women who have achieved grandmotherly status will appreciate this engaging, honest volume of essays by 26 writers who articulate shared emotions about their grandchildren.” - Publishers Weekly

“These stories are so fresh and fundamental, wrenching and joyful, that one is left feeling that the subject has never been cracked open before.” - Harriet Lerner, author of The Dance of Anger