Mother Mother by Jessica O'Dwyer

From the privileged art world of San Francisco to the beautiful and often dangerous highlands of Guatemala. Two mothers. Two countries. One adoption story.

MARIN COUNTY, CALIFORNIA, USA, October 2, 2020 /EINPresswire.com/ -- "Mother Mother," the debut novel by Jessica O’Dwyer published by Loyola University’s Apprentice House Press, explores themes of power and race, deception and love. Told from the perspectives of two mothers—Julie, a white museum curator in California; and Rosalba, the Ixil Maya mother in Guatemala whose son Julie adopts—"Mother Mother" is a gripping, heart-wrenching tale that tackles complex topics: the shadowy world of international adoption, the aftermath of Guatemala's 36-year civil war, the plight of indigenous women, and the meaning of family.

Although the plot of "Mother Mother' is fiction, it is inspired by real life today. The novel tells the story of art museum curator Julie Cowan, whose life is far from perfect. Her pathologist husband, Mark, is distracted at work, while her hotshot museum director boss doubts Julie's curatorial chops. And Julie's young son, Juan, may never recover from trauma inflicted by early life spent in a Guatemalan orphanage. At the same time, Juan's birth mother Rosalba, an indigenous Ixil Maya, navigates her own tumultuous path, beginning with surviving a horrific massacre. In this riveting tale told from alternating perspectives, both mothers must draw on fierce inner strength to reckon with their life circumstances, and life choices.

About "Mother Mother," Guatemalan human rights activist Cynthia M. Guerra says: “Jessica gives a very clear and knowledgeable panorama of Guatemala, from its colonial roots to today’s society pervaded with racism, classism, and an inoperative government. At the same time, she describes the sublime, real, and extremely hard truth of adoption. I could relate to each line as a Guatemalan and as an adoptive mom.”

Author Joyce Maynard states: “Jessica O’Dwyer gives us a story we’ve never heard before. She takes us from the world of comfortable middle-class life to the mysterious, sometimes dark and sometimes beautiful and largely unknown territory of Guatemala, and gives a kind of heroine no reader is likely to have met on the page, until now. You will not put this book down until you’ve finished, and once you have, you will not forget it.”

Jessica O’Dwyer is the adoptive mother to two teens born in Guatemala and author of the 2010 memoir, "Mamalita." Her family visits Guatemala for a month every summer to absorb culture, study Spanish, and visit with her children’s two birth families. O’Dwyer is a vocal proponent of open international adoption and speaks often on the subject at culture camps, adoption gatherings, and book groups.

O’Dwyer’s essays have been published in the New York Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Marin Independent Journal, and elsewhere. An alum of writing conferences at Squaw Valley and Bread Loaf, O’Dwyer earned an MFA in fiction writing from Antioch Los Angeles and a degree in English literature from University of Delaware. O'Dwyer hails from the Jersey shore and now lives in Northern California with her husband, son, and daughter.

BOOK INFORMATION:
Apprentice House Press
Release date: October 1, 2020
ISBN: 978-1-62720-315-9
Price: paperback $18.99; hardcover $26.99
Pages: 306

Jessica O'Dwyer
Jessica O'Dwyer Author
+1 415-686-2771
email us here
Visit us on social media:
Facebook