The Secret Mothers' Club

Sep 30, 2024 5:37 PM

Author:Joanne Fedler

Based on true conversations with real women, The Secret Mothers' Club is a funny, irreverent and often heartbreaking look at women, friendships and motherhood.

One evening in late June a group of female friends get together for an old-school sleepover. It is a regular reunion for eight very different women, with very different lives, secrets and fantasies. The only unifying factor? They are all mothers.

Be warned, you will recognise yourself and your friends within these pages - theirs are conversations we've all had: about our weight; our fantasies - sexual and otherwise; those school lunchboxes; mother's guilt; our partners; the endless struggle to balance work, housework, family and sanity; and the seemingly impossible task of deciding what to feed the family every single night of the week.

This is a book about the delicate nature of mothering, the beauty and complexity of friendships, and the way in which women judge, but also support, one another.

Reviews

Compelling and profoundly moving... This exquisitely written memoir is, literally, a journey into a heart of darkness - a darkness here lit up by beauty and truth

—— Independent

An exceptional book... A brilliant feat of sympathy and imagination

—— Financial Times

Burnside's prose is a delight...Memoir this good illuminates something larger than itself. It is an exercise in understanding compassion and forgiveness

—— Melanie McGrath , Sunday Telegraph

[An] exquisitely written memoir

—— Paul Bailey , Sunday Times

Destined to become a classic of Scots childhood... A beautiful read, but also a brutal one

—— Scotland on Sunday

Superbly written; poetic in the best sense, summoning up a world of terror and beauty

—— Literary Review

This account of a failed father-son relationship is written with extraordinary beauty and insight... His is a profound meditation on the life of the spirit, and the shadows we all carry in our hearts

—— Bel Mooney , The Times

Marvellously written scenes...few people write more hauntingly... His prose has a poet's delicacy and fine-honed precision

—— Tim Jeal , Daily Telegraph

Anyone who has read Gosse, Ackerley or Tobias Wolff will know that big books can be made about small-time fathers. It's a tribute to Burnside that he maps this same territory and prompts these comparisons while creating a story that is uniquely his

—— Blake Morrison , Guardian

This is a haunting read that will linger long after you close the pages of this book

—— Michelle Stanistreet , Daily Express

Powerful

—— The Sun

sounds like a spoof of French Women Don't Get Fatbut it's serious one-upmanship...the diet book fad sweeping Australia

—— Sydney Morning Herald

Moriyama's book is a compelling wake-up call

—— Sunday Telegraph (Australia)

Brimming with easy recipes and lifestyle tips

—— Sunday Express Magazine

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