Mother of Pearl
Australian Literary Fiction
by Angela Savage
A luminous and courageous story about the hopes and dreams we all have for our lives and relationships, and the often fraught and unexpected ways they may be realised.
Angela Savage draws us masterfully into the lives of Anna, an aid worker trying to settle back into life in Australia after more than a decade in Southeast Asia; Meg, Anna’s sister, who holds out hope for a child despite seven fruitless years of IVF; Meg’s husband Nate, and Mukda, a single mother in provincial Thailand who wants to do the right thing by her son and parents.
The women and their families’ lives become intimately intertwined in the unsettling and extraordinary process of trying to bring a child into the world across borders of class, culture and nationality. Rich in characterisation and feeling, Mother of Pearl, and the timely issues it raises, will generate discussion amongst readers everywhere.
REVIEW
5 out of 5
Wanting a child can really turn your life upside down, especially when you’ve exhausted many options. Seeing surrogacy from three unique perspectives, all focused on one thing – bringing a child into the world, was both captivating and emotional. It all felt so real, the characters, the situations, all of it. You’ll find yourself so wrapped up in their lives, that it feels strange to step away when you finish the final page.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
I’m the author of Mother of Pearl, a work of literary fiction, three crime novels, and a selection of short stories.
My crime fiction novels are set in Thailand and feature Australian expat detective Jayne Keeney. The first book in the series Behind the Night Bazaar (Text, 2006) won the 2004 Victorian Premiers’ Literary Award for Unpublished Manuscript and was short-listed for the 2007 Ned Kelly Award for Best First Book. The second book The Half-Child (Text, 2010), and third, The Dying Beach, were both shortlisted for Ned Kelly Awards for Best Crime Fiction, with The Dying Beach also shortlisted for the 2014 Davitt Award.
My short story ‘The Teardrop Tattoos’ won the Sisters in Crime Scarlet Stiletto in 2011. An early Jayne Keeney story, ‘The Mole on the Temple’, won third prize in 1998.
