The mother : a novel

Marcias's husband, Lloydie, expresses his tender love for his wife each morning by preparing a cup of tea and setting it by her bedside. This routine was part of the wonderful, secure life they had built, complete with a brilliant and handsome sixteen-year-old son, Ryan. Then the unimaginable happens, and in a single moment Marcia is stripped clean of everything she had presumed was her for keeps. Ryan, not the kind of boy to find himself on the wrong end of a knife, is brutally murdered. Consumed by grief and rage, she is forced to carry the weight of the family's pain. She has to assume the role of supporter for her inconsolable husband, who has distanced himself and created a secret life. She must also bridle her dark feelings and endure something no mother should ever have to experience: she must go to court alone for the trial of her son's killer, Tyson, another teenage boy. As the trial takes apart her son's life and reassembles it in front of strangers, Marcia, always certain of Ryan's virtues, finds her beliefs and assumptions challenged as she learns more about her son's death and of Tyson's life.

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Library	Call Number	Status
Searching... Hardwood Creek Library (Forest Lake)	FICTION EDW	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Park Grove Library (Cottage Grove)	FICTION EDW	Searching... Unknown
Searching... R.H. Stafford Library (Woodbury)	FICTION EDW	Searching... Unknown
Searching... Stillwater Public Library	FICTION EDW	Searching... Unknown

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Summary

The author of the critically acclaimed A Cupboard Full of Coats makes her hardcover debut with a provocative and timely novel about an emotionally devastated mother's struggle to understand her teenage son's death, and her search for meaning and hope in the wake of incomprehensible loss.

The unimaginable has happened to Marcia Williams. Her bright and beautiful sixteen-year-old son, Ryan, has been brutally murdered. Consumed by grief and rage, she must bridle her dark feelings and endure something no mother should ever have to experience: she must go to court for the trial of the killer--another teenage boy--accused of taking her son's life.

How could her son be dead? Ryan should have been safe--he wasn't the kind of boy to find himself on the wrong end of a knife carried by a dangerous young man like Tyson Manley. But as the trial proceeds, Marcia finds her beliefs and assumptions challenged as she learns more about Ryan's death and Tyson's life, including his dysfunctional family. She also discovers troubling truths about her own. As the strain of Ryan's death tests their marriage, Lloydie, her husband, pulls farther away, hiding behind a wall of secrets that masks his grief, while Marcia draws closer to her sister, who is becoming her prime confidant.

One person seems to hold the answers--and the hope--Marcia needs: Tyson's scared young girlfriend, Sweetie. But as this anguished mother has learned, nothing in life is certain. Not anymore.

A beautiful, engrossing novel that illuminates some of the most important and troubling issues of our time, The Motheris a moving portrait of love, tragedy, and survival--and the aftershocks from a momentary act of cruel violence that transforms the lives of everyone it touches.

Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Edwards (A Cupboard Full of Coats) delves into the hyperactive mind of Marcia Williams as she struggles to process the recent murder of her 16-year-old son, Ryan, and find closure in an ocean of grief. Composed primarily of daily court proceedings and Marcia's internal search for meaning, the novel is evocatively claustrophobic. As neglected details of the case begin to emerge, Marcia's circular ruminations become increasingly seductive. The smallest facts begin to take on great importance as potential keys to Ryan's death, though Marcia reminds herself that the "what-ifs are infinite, a useless spiral stairway descending straight into hell." Marcia has been resentfully avoiding Sweetie-the young woman with whom Ryan had been involved. But after this initial aversion wears away, Sweetie shows herself to be crucial in understanding Ryan's final days. The trial of Ryan's accused killer, Tyson Manley, which at first seems as if it will result in an easy murder conviction, is complicated by Sweetie's testimony and the shocking new evidence she brings to light. In this memorable story of strength in the aftermath of violent tragedy, Edwards paints a close, vivid portrait of a mother's unrelenting mission to avoid anger and blame, instead finding real justice and necessary closure. (May) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

Kirkus Review

After the murder of 16-year-old Ryan Williams, his mother, Marcia, is consumed by grief as she struggles to find answers to his killing. "How is it possible for my son to have been doing all the right things, that as parents, Lloydie and I, we were doing all the right things and yet still Ryan is dead?" Marcia can't stop wondering. In the days after Ryan's death, there are many things Marcia can't stop doing. She can't break the habit of going into Ryan's room "like I went in there when my son was alive, to hurry his getting ready or shoo him down to breakfast." She can't stop crying. But Marcia must shutter away her sadness and tears from her husband, Lloydie, who's grown withdrawn and separate and won't even attend the trial of their son's murderer, Tyson Manley, with her. The question of howand whyRyan met his death is the driving question as the courtroom drama progresses. "I don't know if his growth spurt had ended, will never know the exact height my son would have achieved as a man," Marcia thinks, when seeing the bulky form of her son's murderer in the courtroom. And as the trial of Tyson Manley comes to an end, Marcia and all who loved Ryan struggle to keep faith in both justice and healing. Here are beautifully drawn characters anchored in the universal experiences of love, loss, and grieving. With subtle nuance and elegant precision, Edwards (A Cupboard Full of Coats, 2012) crafts a richly detailed world that holds up the great weight that bears down on it: the death of a child. But, ultimately, the lack of resolution leaves the reader with a lingering sense of the unfinished. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.

Booklist Review

In the follow-up to her Man Booker Prize-nominated debut, A Cupboard Full of Coats (2012), Edwards delivers a quietly devastating novel about a mother's attempt to survive after the murder of her 16-year-old son. Marcia Williams is barely functioning in the aftermath of the brutal murder of her only son, Ryan, at the hands of another teenage boy, Tyson. She obsessively haunts his room, rethinking every decision she ever made as a parent, crippled by the knowledge that none of her caution kept her boy safe. She's furious with her husband's reaction to Ryan's death and determined to make it through Tyson's trial with her sanity intact. Set in Edwards' native London, the book's delicate, lyrical prose belies the horrifying events that propel the plot. Readers' assumptions are challenged, along with Marcia's, as the twisted realities of life for poor, urban teenagers become clear. Edwards manages to pull off a serious examination of how the social contract is failing a large portion of Britain's urban population without moralizing in what is, ultimately, the story of one family's road to acceptance and healing in the wake of a tragic loss.--Szwarek, Magan Copyright 2016 Booklist

Library Journal Review

Set in present-day London, this second novel by Edwards (A Cupboard Full of Coats) follows Marcia Williams in the months after the murder of her 16-year-old son Ryan. Edwards provides an intimate glimpse of grief within a tight-knit Afro-Caribbean community. Consumed by numbness, Marcia self-medicates to cope with anger and blame, often revisiting her son's bedroom to reflect on what his life could have been and to wonder if, in fact, she's still a mother. As her husband, Lloydie, retreats into himself, scarcely communicating, Marcia instead turns to her sister Lorna for comfort. Unfortunately, much of the narrative is bogged down by the minutiae of courtroom proceedings, in which the sisters observe the indifference of Ryan's alleged killer, Tyson Manley, as lawyers from both sides present their arguments. While Marcia struggles to grasp the how and why of her son's death, a surprise courtroom development from Sweetie Nelson, a figure central to both families, leads Marcia and Lloydie to reevaluate themselves as parents. Verdict Although Edwards offers a personal portrait of grief, predictable plot twists and a series of scattered endings sour an otherwise intriguing narrative. [See Prepub Alert, 11/2/15.]-Stephanie Sendaula, Library Journal © Copyright 2016. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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Reviews (4)

Publisher's Weekly Review

Kirkus Review

Booklist Review

Library Journal Review

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