Ben’s Book Club – April 2022: The Mother

April title – The Mother by Jane Caro

Ben’s Book Club is a digital online book club available exclusively to Australian and New Zealand libraries, hosted by best-selling author Ben Hobson.

Members of Myli Community Libraries can now read or listen to the selected title ‘The Mother‘ in Libby, before joining Ben Hobson online to meet the author Jane Caro and discuss the book.

This is an online event. Please attend using your internet connected computer or mobile. Register to receive the Zoom link delivered to your email inbox 24 hours before the event. You can also join the event directly through this link.

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About the book –

Recently widowed, Miriam Duffy is a respectable North Shore real estate agent and devoted mother and grandmother. She was thrilled when her younger daughter Ally married her true love, but as time goes by Miriam wonders whether all is well with Ally, as she moves to the country and gradually withdraws, finding excuses every time Miriam offers to visit. Their relationship has always had its ups and downs, and Miriam tries to give her daughter the distance she so clearly wants. But is all as it seems?

When the truth of her daughter’s situation is revealed, Miriam watches in disbelief as Ally and her children find themselves increasingly vulnerable and cut off from the world. As the situation escalates and the law proves incapable of protecting them, Miriam is faced with an unthinkable decision. But she will do anything for the people she loves most in the world. Wouldn’t you?

• Download the e-book
• Listen to the e-audiobook
• To enjoy more ebooks, audiobooks, and digital magazines, download Libby or visit our website.

About the author –

Jane Caro AM is a Walkley Award-winning Australian columnist, author, novelist, broadcaster, advertising writer, documentary maker, feminist and social commentator.

Jane appears frequently on Q&A, The Drum and Sunrise. She has created and presented five documentary series for ABC’s Compass, airing in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019. She and Catherine Fox present a popular podcast with Podcast One, Austereo ‘Women With Clout’. She writes regular columns in Sunday Life.

She has published twelve books, including Just a Girl, Just a Queen and Just Flesh & Blood, a young adult trilogy about the life of Elizabeth Tudor, and the memoir Plain Speaking Jane. She created and edited Unbreakable which featured stories women writers had never told before and was published just before the Harvey Weinstein revelations. Her most recent non-fiction work is Accidental Feminists, about the fate of women over 50. The Mother is her first novel for adults.

About the host –

Ben Hobson lives in Brisbane with his wife and their two small boys. He currently teaches English and Music at a Brisbane High School. In 2014 his novella, If the Saddle Breaks My Spine, was shortlisted for the Viva La Novella prize, run by Seizureonline. To Become a Whale, his first novel, published in 2017 was longlisted for the ABIA Debut Fiction award, and the Courier Mail’s People Choice Award. His second novel, Snake Island, was released in 2019.