Mothers - Hardcover

by Brenda Lozano (Author), Heather Cleary (Translator)

Longlisted for the PEN Translation Prize

From the author of Witches, a gripping, kaleidoscopic tale of two women in 1940s Mexico--one whose daughter has just been kidnapped and another who has just adopted a little girl

When the kidnapping of a little girl shocks the Mexican capital, the lives of two very different women become forever intertwined. Gloria Felipe lives a comfortable upper-class life with her husband and five children. Nuria Valencia comes from a working-class background and has been desperately trying to get pregnant in order to save her marriage. After traditional methods produce no results, she subjects herself to horrific fertility treatments designed and administered by men, and ultimately tries to adopt but is rejected on the basis that a woman in her early thirties is too old to adopt a baby. Failed time and again by the system and about to lose hope, she is presented with an opportunity that seems almost too good to be true.

Through the eyes of a wry unnamed narrator, we witness the battle of the Felipe family to recover their youngest member and the anguished attempts of the Valencia family to save their daughter from potential danger. With the twists and turns of a thriller, and Brenda Lozano's sharp yet poignant sense of humor, the novel asks how far mothers are willing to go in the name of love for their children, and at what cost.

Author Biography

BRENDA LOZANO is a fiction writer, essayist, and editor. Her books include Todo nada (All or Nothing), followed by Cuaderno ideal (Loop), the book of short stories Cómo piensan las piedras (How Stones Think) and Brujas (Witches). She is part of the celebrated Bogotá39 among the best Latin American writers, lives in Mexico City, and writes for El País.

HEATHER CLEARY is an award-winning translator and 2026 Guggenheim Fellow whose work has been recognized by the National Book Foundation, the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute, and English PEN, among other organizations.