A Mother of a Tale: Moms in Fiction - Books, Movies, & More

The Patron Saint of Liars
by Ann Patchett

Rose, a beautiful and mysterious woman living at St. Elizabeth's home for unwed mothers, has no intention of telling her mother or her husband about her pregnancy, until a healing spring near the home changes her mind.

The Pure Gold Baby
by Margaret Drabble

Her promising career in 1960s London interrupted by an affair with a married professor that renders her a single mother, anthropology student Jessica Speight faces wrenching questions about responsibility, potential and compassion when her sunny child reveals unique needs.

Little Earthquakes
by Jennifer Weiner

A chef, an event planner, and a basketball player's wife find their marriages and careers in Philadelphia challenged by new motherhood, difficult schedules, and infidelity, in a tale complicated by the return of a woman from Los Angeles whose life was interrupted by tragedy. By the author of In Her Shoes.

The Birth House
by Ami McKay

A first daughter in five generations of her early twentieth century Nova Scotia family, Dora Rare becomes an apprentice to a gifted Acadian midwife and storyteller before their home is threatened by the arrival of a brash medical doctor and his promises about sterile and painless births.

A Gate at the Stairs
by Lorrie Moore

A latest work by the PEN/Malamud-winning author of Who Will Run the Frog Hospital? is set on a small midwestern farm just after the September 11 attacks and finds a twenty-year-old woman coming of age amid such challenges as racism, the War on Terror, and cruelty in the name of love.

I Don't Know How She Does It : the Life of Kate Reddy, Working Mother
by Allison Pearson

Kate Reddy, a hedge fund manager and mother of two, struggles to juggle her professional and personal lives and to balance--often unsuccessfully--on the tightrope of work and home

Left Neglected
by Lisa Genova

The best-selling author of Still Alice presents the story of a woman in her 30s who suffers a traumatic brain injury in a car accident that leaves her unable to perceive left-side information, a disability that prompts her struggle to recover and heal an estrangement.

Her
by Harriet Lane

Drawn to a sophisticated new friend named Nina, exhausted young mother Emma finds herself in a dangerous game of cat and mouse triggered by Nina's growing obsession to own and control her.

God Help the Child
by Toni Morrison

A latest novel by the Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Bluest Eye traces the impact of childhood trauma on the lives of a beautiful multiracial woman, the man she loves and an abused white girl who looks to her for help.

Shine Shine Shine
by Lydia Netzer

When fabricated aspects of their picture-perfect world are embarrassingly exposed by a car accident, Sunny Mann, an everyday woman longing for an ideal life; and Maxon, her savant astronaut husband, struggle through blame and fear before confronting realities about their deep bond.