Our Take

The Book of Mother is an absolutely stunning debut—raw, lyrical, and emotionally devastating in the best possible way. Huisman writes with the kind of fierce honesty that makes you catch your breath, capturing both the intoxicating joy of having a charismatic mother and the soul-crushing pain of watching someone you love self-destruct. What makes this memoir-like novel extraordinary is Huisman's refusal to simplify. Catherine is never reduced to a diagnosis or a tragedy; she remains complex, infuriating, brilliant, and deeply human throughout. The prose is electric—at times almost feverish—perfectly mirroring the intensity of the mother-daughter relationship at its center. The narrative structure, which weaves between past and present, between Violaine's childhood and Catherine's own history, gradually reveals how trauma reverberates across generations. There's dark humor threaded through the heartbreak, and moments of transcendent beauty amidst the chaos. Huisman writes about mental illness and its impact on families with nuance and compassion, never indulging in sentimentality or blame. Readers who appreciated The Argonauts by Maggie Nelson or H is for Hawk by Helen Macdonald will recognize similar fearlessness here. The Book of Mother is essential reading for anyone interested in complex family dynamics, the limits of love, and the ways we carry our mothers within us long after they're gone.