You Be Mother

Description

What do you do, when you find the perfect family, and it's not yours? A charming, funny and irresistible novel about families, friendship and tiny little white lies. The only thing Abi ever wanted was a proper family. So when she falls pregnant by an Australian exchange student in London, she cannot pack up her old life in Croydon fast enough, to start all over in Sydney and make her own family. It is not until she arrives, with three-week-old Jude in tow, that Abi realises Stu is not quite ready to be a father after all. And he is the only person she knows in this hot, dazzling, confusing city, where the job of making friends is turning out to be harder than she thought. That is, until she meets Phyllida, her wealthy, charming, imperious older neighbour, and they become almost like mother and daughter. If only Abi had not told Phil that teeny tiny small lie, the very first day they met... Imagine the warmth of Monica McInerney, the excruciating awkwardness of Offspring and the wit of Liane Moriarty, all rolled into one delightful, warm, funny and totally endearing novel about families - the ones we have, and the ones we want - and the stories we tell ourselves about them. 'Rare and delightful ... a beautifully crafted novel about female relationships. I couldn't put this book down.' Clare Press, Fashion Editor-at-large, Marie Claire 'You Be Mother is the kind of book you pick up...and never want to put down ... you will fall in love with this book.' Lauren Sams, author of She's Having Her Baby

Meg Mason began her career at the Financial Times and The Times of London. Her work has since appeared in The Sunday Times, The Sydney Morning Herald and The Sunday Telegraph. She has written humour for Sunday STYLE, The New Yorker's Daily Shouts and a monthly column for GQ and been a regular contributor to Vogue, ELLE and marie claire. Her first novel You Be Mother (HarperCollins) was published in 2017. Her second, Sorrow and Bliss (HarperCollins) was first published in Australia in 2020, and the US and UK in 2021. The actress Emilia Fox narrated the audiobook. Now a bestseller in Australia, it has now sold in more than 20 countries and will be published in 16 languages. It has been longlisted for the ABIA Literary Fiction book of the year, chosen as the GOOP book club read in March 2021, and been optioned for screen by the US studio, New Regency, producer of Oscar-winning films including Little Women, 12 Years a Slave and Birdman. She lives in Sydney, with her husband and two daughters.