Mother Daughter Widow Wife: A Novel
Written by Robin Wasserman
Narrated by Jayme Mattler, Jenni Barber and Emily Tremaine
3.5/5
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About this audiobook
From the author of Girls on Fire comes a “sharp and soulful and ferociously insightful” (Leslie Jamison) novel centered around a woman with no memory, the scientists studying her, and the daughter who longs to understand.
Wendy Doe is a woman with no past and no future. Without any memory of who she is, she’s diagnosed with dissociative fugue, a temporary amnesia that could lift at any moment—or never at all—and invited by Dr. Benjamin Strauss to submit herself for experimental observation at his Meadowlark Institute for Memory Research. With few better options, Wendy feels she has no choice.
To Dr. Strauss, Wendy is a female body, subject to his investigation and control. To Strauss’s ambitious student, Lizzie Epstein, she’s an object of fascination, a mirror of Lizzie’s own desires, and an invitation to wonder: once a woman is untethered from all past and present obligations of womanhood, who is she allowed to become?
To Alice, the daughter she left behind, Wendy Doe is an absence so present it threatens to tear Alice’s world apart. Through their attempts to untangle Wendy’s identity—as well as her struggle to construct a new self—Wasserman has crafted an “artful meditation on memory and identity” (The New York Times Book Review) and a journey of discovery, reckoning, and reclamation. “A timely examination of memory, womanhood and power,” (Time) Mother Daughter Widow Wife will leave you “utterly riveted” (BuzzFeed).
Editor's Note
Stylish and gripping…
A stylish new psychological thriller from the author of “Girls on Fire.” After a woman is found on a bus with no memory and no ID, she submits herself for scientific study led by a controlling doctor. As the team tries to solve the mystery of her identity, she fights to create a new one, and the daughter she left behind struggles to understand why her mother disappeared. A gripping tale of memory and identity, truth and power.
Robin Wasserman
Robin Wasserman is the author of Girls on Fire, an NPR and BuzzFeed Best Book of the Year. She is a graduate of Harvard College with a Master’s in the history of science. She lives in Los Angeles, where she writes for television.
More audiobooks from Robin Wasserman
Girls on Fire: A Novel Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Scream and Scream Again!: Spooky Stories from Mystery Writers of America Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tales from the Shadowhunter Academy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Lost Herondale Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ghosts of the Shadow Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Angels Twice Descending Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Evil We Love Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Pale Kings and Princes Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Through Blood, Through Fire: Ghosts of the Shadow Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Wicked Ones: Ghosts of the Shadow Market Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
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Reviews for Mother Daughter Widow Wife
62 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5If you're in the mood for consistent, navel gazing ennui than look no further. As it happened, I was in that mood so I enjoyed the book. I wasn't thrilled about the characters (women) bring defined in terms of the men in their life even as they supposedly railed against just that. The narrator was moody and lulling and fit the story well. I may have hated this book in a more critical frame of mind but if you're looking for emo, this is it.
1 person found this helpful
- Rating: 2 out of 5 stars2/5I was only able to make it about 45 minutes in to this book, and that was a struggle. I kept telling myself to just wait and it will get better, but it didn't. The sociopolitical undertones were just too cartoonish. It's not a matter of agreeing or disagreeing with what the author is trying to say. Rather, the author just didn't develop the characters enough to let them make the point. The characters were predictable, one note, and - therefore - boring
Maybe it gets better later on. I decided life is too short and there are too many other, much better books out there. I'm passing on this one. - Rating: 1 out of 5 stars1/5No real point to the story. Too wordy. Alice’s story especially made no sense.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Author was clearly sending a message to the world. It was abundantly clear to me. My concern is that those who need the message might be like a few of the characters in the book, in serious denial.
It’s a long book but very much worth the read. Good book for a book club.