The Book Of Mother: A Novel

Violaine Huisman’s remarkable debut novel is an exquisitely wrought story about a daughter’s inextinguishable love for her magnetic, mercurial mother who lived & loved in extremes. Translated by Leslie Camhi.

Beautiful & charismatic, Catherine, aka ‘Maman’, smokes too much, drives too fast, laughs too hard & loves too extravagantly. During a joyful & chaotic childhood in Paris, her daughter Violaine wouldn’t have it any other way. But when Maman is hospitalised after a third divorce & breakdown, everything changes.  As the story of Catherine’s own traumatic childhood & coming of age unfolds, the pieces come together to form an indelible portrait of a mother as irresistible as she is impossible, as triumphant as she is transgressive.

"Violaine Huisman’s The Book of Mother brings alive the high-drama world of Violaine & her mother, Catherine. This stark, no-holds-barred depiction of a mother-daughter relationship feels incredibly immediate, a beautiful, bold novel translated with a deceptively elegant simplicity by Leslie Camhi." — The 2022 International Booker Prize Judges

Violaine Huisman was born in Paris in 1979, but has lived & worked in New York for over 20 years. In New York, she ran the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s literary series & has also organized multidisciplinary arts festivals across the city. The Book of Mother is her debut novel. Originally published by Gallimard under the title Fugitive parce que reine, it has been awarded multiple literary prizes, including the Prix Françoise Saga & the Prix Marie Claire.