MotherKind
On sale
2nd April 2026
Price: £12.99
A deeply moving novel about hopeful beginnings and profound endings – from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Night Watch
‘A brilliant writer, utterly original and with an astonishing range’ IAN McEWAN
‘Phillips combines extraordinary perception with extraordinary versatility and power’ MARGARET ATWOOD
‘Shimmering prose, fierce realism and probing meditativeness’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘The beauty and originality of MotherKind are undeniable’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
One summer’s day, 30-year-old Kate flies to her Appalachian hometown to tell her mother she is pregnant. But when she arrives, her mother reveals that she doesn’t have long to live.
Kate is suddenly thrust into roles of enormous responsibility, caring for both her child and her terminally ill mother. In the same year that she watches her newborn grow, Kate witnesses the gradual disappearance of a woman who has been her best friend and mentor her entire life, and is forced to reckon with devastating loss alongside a joyful new beginning.
‘A brilliant writer, utterly original and with an astonishing range’ IAN McEWAN
‘Phillips combines extraordinary perception with extraordinary versatility and power’ MARGARET ATWOOD
‘Shimmering prose, fierce realism and probing meditativeness’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH
‘The beauty and originality of MotherKind are undeniable’ TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT
One summer’s day, 30-year-old Kate flies to her Appalachian hometown to tell her mother she is pregnant. But when she arrives, her mother reveals that she doesn’t have long to live.
Kate is suddenly thrust into roles of enormous responsibility, caring for both her child and her terminally ill mother. In the same year that she watches her newborn grow, Kate witnesses the gradual disappearance of a woman who has been her best friend and mentor her entire life, and is forced to reckon with devastating loss alongside a joyful new beginning.
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Reviews
Compassionate and spiritually nourishing... This deeply felt, profoundly affecting novel, her best so far, exhibits a maturity of vision both keen and wistful... Phillips explores the intuitive bond between mothers and daughters with unforced grace
A beautifully written, delightfully sensual and deeply moving novel which touches with enormous subtlety on big themes
The beauty and originality of MotherKind are undeniable... Phillips illuminates, with precision and sensitivity, fundamental aspects of all mother-daughter relations
Phillips is the master of her craft and of a story and characters that reach far beyond mere sentimentality into a realm of profound reality... MotherKind is life at its most intimate and vulnerable, and also at its most real
Delicate compassion and hard-edged honesty... MotherKind is further proof of an extraordinary ability to reflect the texture of real life
This book, both technically and impressive and deeply moving, is the best so far by one of America's finest novelists... With its shimmering prose, fierce realism, and probing meditativeness, it confirms Jayne Anne Phillips' importance in contemporary fiction
An abundantly talented writer
Jayne Anne Phillips combines extraordinary perception with extraordinary versatility and power
A beautiful and moving work of fiction that celebrates the sacredness of everyday life
No number of books read or films seen can deaden one to the intimate act of art by which this wonderful young writer has penetrated the definitive experience of her generation
Affecting... Linguistically beautiful... Deeply felt
A stunning meditation on family
A brilliant writer, utterly original and with an astonishing range
MotherKind achieves a finely rendered luminescence of grief... Phillips' is a language-laden domain of both precision and nuance
Phillips' past work has received much critical acclaim, being described as mesmerizing, sensual and exquisite; her new novel with not disappoint... There is an ease in her prose, an authority which transports the reader into the most intimate moments of someone else's life
Potent storytelling plucks apart the parent-child relationship and illuminates the complexities of loving and losing... Wrought of pain and intimacy... Imbued with intelligence and sensitivity. The writing purrs with a quiet, steady rhythm