The Book of Mother: Longlisted for the International Booker Prize by Violane Huisman

The Book of Mother by Violaine Huisman is a debut novel that traces a daughter’s enduring love for her mother, Catherine, known as ‘Maman’. Set against a childhood in Paris, it presents a parent described as beautiful and charismatic, with a taste for excess: smoking too much, driving too fast, laughing too hard and loving extravagantly.

After a third divorce and a breakdown that leads to hospitalisation, the family’s life changes. Violaine and her sister wait for their mother to return, but when she comes home, violent mood swings and a disregard for personal boundaries make the household feel precarious. As Catherine’s own traumatic childhood and coming of age are revealed, the narrative builds a portrait of a mother shown as both irresistible and impossible, triumphant and transgressive.

Key details

• Debut novel by Violaine Huisman
• Longlisted for the International Booker Prize
• Set partly during a childhood in Paris
• Centres on a daughter’s relationship with her mother, Catherine (‘Maman’)

Synopsis

A daughter looks back on a joyful, chaotic upbringing shaped by her magnetic mother, Catherine, known as ‘Maman’. Following a third divorce and a breakdown, Maman is hospitalised, and her return brings volatile mood swings and a disregard for boundaries that destabilise the home.

As Catherine’s traumatic childhood and coming of age unfold, the story forms a portrait of a mother marked by extremes, and of a daughter who must hold her memory close in order to let go.