The School for Good Mothers
  • Published:
    Jan-2022 (Hardcover)
    Feb-2023 (Paperback)
  • Formats:
    Print / eBook / Audio
  • Main Genre:
    Literary
  • Time Period:
    Contemporary
  • Pages:
    336
  • Rating:
  • Purchase:
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In this taut and explosive debut novel, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn't have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents' sacrifices. She can't persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough.

Until Frida has a very bad day.

The state has its eyes on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgment, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother's devotion.

Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good.

A searing page-turner that is also a transgressive novel of ideas about the perils of “perfect” upper-middle class parenting; the violence enacted upon women by both the state and, at times, one another; the systems that separate families; and the boundlessness of love, The School for Good Mothers introduces, in Frida, an everywoman for the ages. Using dark wit to explore the pains and joys of the deepest ties that bind us, Chan has written a modern literary classic.
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EDITIONS
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    •  
    • Feb-2023
    • Scribner / Marysue Rucci Books
    • Trade Paperback
    • ISBN: 1982156139
    • ISBN13: 9781982156138
    •  
    • Mar-2022
    • Transworld (UK)
    • Paperback
    • ISBN: 1529151333
    • ISBN13: 9781529151336
    •  
    • Feb-2023
    • William Heinemann (UK)
    • Paperback
    • ISBN: 1529158524
    • ISBN13: 9781529158526
    • First Edition
    • Jan-2022
    • Simon & Schuster
    • Hardcover
    • ISBN: 1982156120
    • ISBN13: 9781982156121
    •  
    • Mar-2022
    • William Heinemann (UK)
    • Hardcover
    • ISBN: 1529151325
    • ISBN13: 9781529151329
    •  
    • Mar-2022
    • William Heinemann (UK)
    • Hardcover
    •  
    • Jan-2022
    • Penguin
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 1529151341
    • ISBN13: 9781529151343
    •  
    • Jan-2022
    • Simon & Schuster
    • eBook
    • ISBN: 1982156147
    • ISBN13: 9781982156145
    •  
    • Jan-2022
    • Simon & Schuster
    • eBook (Kindle)
    •  
    • Jan-2022
    • Simon & Schuster Audio
    • Audible
    •  
    • Jan-2022
    • Simon & Schuster Audio
    • Audio CD
    • ISBN: 1797135473
    • ISBN13: 9781797135472
    •  
    • Jan-2022
    • Blackstone Audiobooks
    • Hardcover
    • Large Print



View the Complete Jessamine Chan Book List