The Abandoners: Of Mothers and Monsters: Unabridged edition

By Begoña Gómez Urzaiz, Reader to be announced

‘The best kind of book: the one you didn’t know you were craving until it appeared . . . self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it’ JIA TOLENTINO

‘A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz tells the stories with such intelligence and wit and generosity’ TESSA HADLEY

Ingrid Bergman, Muriel Spark, Maria Montessori . . . what do these women have in common?

During the pandemic, trapped at home with young children and struggling to find creative space to write, journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz became fixated on artistic women who were able to overcome both society’s judgement and their own maternal instincts in order to leave their children. More than anything, she was fascinated by her own prejudice towards these women, so clearly tied up in a much wider cultural bias.

Using famous examples including Doris Lessing, fictional ones such as Anna Karenina, and interrogating modern trends like Momfluencers, Begoña reveals what our judgement of these women tells us about our judgement of all women.

‘The best book I’ve read on the implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti’s Motherhood’ CLAUDIA DURASTANTI

Format: Audio-Book
Release Date: 29 Aug 2024
Pages: None
ISBN: 978-0-00-865610-2
Detailed Edition: Unabridged edition
Begoña Gómez Urzaiz is a freelance journalist who lives in Barcelona. She writes an opinion column in La Vanguardia and collaborates regularly in El País, Radio Primavera Sound and other media. She teaches of Literary Journalism in the Master’s program at the UAB. THE ABANDONERS is her first book.

”'The best kind of book: the one you didn’t know you were craving until it appeared … self-interrogative, intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it” - JIA TOLENTINO, author of TRICK MIRROR

”'A very richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz tells the stories of all these different women with such intelligence and wit and generosity” - TESSA HADLEY, author of THE PAST

”'The best book I've read on the implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti's Motherhood” - CLAUDIA DURASTANTI, author of STRANGERS I KNOW

”'There’s a wonderful rhythm to Gemma Reeves” - writing, which is thoughtful and poised and pulled me along from the first page to the last. I found Mamele to be a mesmerising and deeply felt novel about mothers and daughters, inheritance, art, intimacy and desire. I’ll be thinking about it for some time' CHLOË ASHBY, author of WET PAINT