2022 John Leonard Prize for Best First Book (nominee)
THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
AN OBAMA'S 2022 SUMMER READING PICK
A BETWEEN THE COVERS NOVEMBER 2022 PICK
'Will resonate with fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere' ELLE
'Destined to be a feminist classic - kept me up at night' PANDORA SYKES
'The Handmaid's Tale for the Squid Game generation' TELEGRAPH
Frida Liu had fed and changed her toddler Harriet. She had a work deadline - an article to finish, a job hanging by a thread, a file she'd left in the office. She would go get it. Harriet would be fine. But then the neighbours heard her crying.
Soon, the state will decide that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. That bad mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything?
The School for Good Mothers is an explosive and thrilling novel about love, perfectionism and parenthood.
A riveting, thought-provoking read' DAILY MAIL
'A remarkable, propulsive novel' VOGUE
'A portrait of our fanatical culture of judgement against women, and mothers in particular' METRO
Genre: Literary Fiction
AN OBAMA'S 2022 SUMMER READING PICK
A BETWEEN THE COVERS NOVEMBER 2022 PICK
'Will resonate with fans of Celeste Ng's Little Fires Everywhere' ELLE
'Destined to be a feminist classic - kept me up at night' PANDORA SYKES
'The Handmaid's Tale for the Squid Game generation' TELEGRAPH
Frida Liu had fed and changed her toddler Harriet. She had a work deadline - an article to finish, a job hanging by a thread, a file she'd left in the office. She would go get it. Harriet would be fine. But then the neighbours heard her crying.
Soon, the state will decide that Frida is not fit to care for her daughter. That she must be re-trained. That bad mothers everywhere will be re-educated. Will their mistakes cost them everything?
The School for Good Mothers is an explosive and thrilling novel about love, perfectionism and parenthood.
A riveting, thought-provoking read' DAILY MAIL
'A remarkable, propulsive novel' VOGUE
'A portrait of our fanatical culture of judgement against women, and mothers in particular' METRO
Genre: Literary Fiction
Praise for this book
"The School for Good Mothers is an astonishing novel. Heartbreaking and daring, propulsive and wise. In the way that The Handmaid's Tale made us fear for women's bodies, The School for Good Mothers makes us fear for women's souls. It's hard to distill all the love and longing this book contains, and how electrifying it is to be immersed in Chan's world. So let me just say, I read with my heart in my throat and I held my kids tight." - Diane Cook
"Jessamine Chan captures, in heartbreaking tones, the exacting price women pay in a patriarchal society that despises them, that reduces their worth to their viability for procreation and capacity for mothering. The School for Good Mothers is not so much a warning for some possible dystopian nightmare as much as it is an alarm announcing that the nightmare is here. The book is, thus, a weeping testimony, a haunting song, and a piercing rebuke of both the misogynist social order and the traps it lays for women, girls, and femmes. Good Mothers deserves an honored place next to the works of Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler." - Robert Jones Jr
"A terrifying novel about mass surveillance, loneliness, and the impossible measurements of motherhood - The School for Good Mothers is a timely and remarkable debut." - Carmen Maria Machado
"This book is like nothing I've read before--a tightly plotted, deeply moving novel that also offers profound insights into the state of contemporary motherhood within a country that offers very little in the way of societal support for parents. I found myself moved to tears by its conclusion. The School for Good Mothers is haunting and unforgettable, and I'm in awe of Jessamine Chan's mind." - Liz Moore
"Gutting and terrifying. Vivid and exquisite. In The School for Good Mothers, you'll find not only your favorite novel of the year, but also a new cultural touchstone, a reference point for the everyday horrors all parents experience and take for granted. This book is sharp, shocking, anxiety-provoking, superb. It is exactly what you want, and need, to read." - Julia Phillips
"This taut, explosive novel is all the more terrifying because it edges so close to reality. With the story of one woman struggling to get her daughter back, Jessamine Chan spotlights the punishing scrutiny and judgment aimed at mothers everywhere - especially those who aren't wealthy or white. Frida's predicament embodies the fraught question so many women are taught to ask: Am I good enough?" - Leni Zumas
"Jessamine Chan captures, in heartbreaking tones, the exacting price women pay in a patriarchal society that despises them, that reduces their worth to their viability for procreation and capacity for mothering. The School for Good Mothers is not so much a warning for some possible dystopian nightmare as much as it is an alarm announcing that the nightmare is here. The book is, thus, a weeping testimony, a haunting song, and a piercing rebuke of both the misogynist social order and the traps it lays for women, girls, and femmes. Good Mothers deserves an honored place next to the works of Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler." - Robert Jones Jr
"A terrifying novel about mass surveillance, loneliness, and the impossible measurements of motherhood - The School for Good Mothers is a timely and remarkable debut." - Carmen Maria Machado
"This book is like nothing I've read before--a tightly plotted, deeply moving novel that also offers profound insights into the state of contemporary motherhood within a country that offers very little in the way of societal support for parents. I found myself moved to tears by its conclusion. The School for Good Mothers is haunting and unforgettable, and I'm in awe of Jessamine Chan's mind." - Liz Moore
"Gutting and terrifying. Vivid and exquisite. In The School for Good Mothers, you'll find not only your favorite novel of the year, but also a new cultural touchstone, a reference point for the everyday horrors all parents experience and take for granted. This book is sharp, shocking, anxiety-provoking, superb. It is exactly what you want, and need, to read." - Julia Phillips
"This taut, explosive novel is all the more terrifying because it edges so close to reality. With the story of one woman struggling to get her daughter back, Jessamine Chan spotlights the punishing scrutiny and judgment aimed at mothers everywhere - especially those who aren't wealthy or white. Frida's predicament embodies the fraught question so many women are taught to ask: Am I good enough?" - Leni Zumas
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