The Abandoners

A dazzling, revealing exploration of motherhood, independence and taboo

'The best kind of book: the one you didn't know you were craving until it appeared ... self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it' JIA TOLENTINO

'A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz tells the stories with such intelligence and wit and generosity' TESSA HADLEY

''The best kind of book: the one you didn''t know you were craving until it appeared . . . self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it'' JIA TOLENTINO ''A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begona Gomez Urzaiz tells the stories with such intelligence and wit and generosity'' TESSA HADLEY Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Maria Montessori . . . what do these vastly different women have in common? During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Begona Gomez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who were able to overcome both society''s judgement and their own maternal instincts in order to leave their children. More than anything, she was fascinated by her own prejudice towards these women, so clearly tied up in a much wider cultural bias. Using famous examples including Doris Lessing, fictional ones such as Anna Karenina, and interrogating modern trends like Momfluencers, Begona reveals what our judgement of these women tells us about our judgement of all women. ''The best book I''ve read on the implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti''s Motherhood'' CLAUDIA DURASTANTI

Autorentext

Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, Translated by Lizzie Davis

Klappentext

'The best kind of book: the one you didn't know you were craving until it appeared ... self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it' JIA TOLENTINO

'A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz tells the stories with such intelligence and wit and generosity' TESSA HADLEY

'Fascinating ... I suspect there are many, many other mothers who are going to inhale The*Abandoners'**OBSERVER***

When it comes to children: a man leaves, a woman abandons

Journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz is fascinated by women who left their children behind to pursue their artistic lives. Women like Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Doris Lessing and Joni Mitchell.

This book captures those extraordinary stories, along with the realities of women who have no choice but to separate from their families, and the everyday guilt of mothers who dream quietly of freedom.

This is a book about motherhood, selfhood, ambition and creativity. Above all, it captures what our judgement of those women who 'abandon' tells us about our judgement of all women.

'The best book I've read on the implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti's Motherhood' CLAUDIA DURASTANTI