I am delighted to be taking part in the blog tour for Audrey Aubrain's debut suspense, The Push.
'I think she pushed him,' I said to you quietly. 'I think
she pushed him . . .'
The arrival of baby Violet was meant to be the happiest day
of my life. But as soon as I held her in my arms I knew something wasn't right.
I had always known that the women in my family aren't meant
to be mothers.
My husband Fox says I'm imagining it. He tells me I'm
nothing like my own mother, and that Violet is the sweetest child
But she's different with me. Something feels very wrong.
Is it her? Or is it me? Is she the monster? Or am I?
The Push is an unsettling, breathtaking and powerful read
about obsession and our deepest fears that will stay with you long after you
turn the final page.
My Thoughts
The Push takes you into the lives of several generations in a family and concentrates on the role of motherhood between the generations. At times, it is a difficult read as the reality of the role and its physical demands seem insurmountable. It is one of those books which puts the reader off balance as you are never quite sure how reliable the characters' accounts are.
Of course, it is not just the effect of the mother on her child which is examined, but also that of the fathers who seem detached at times. Loss features centre stage and there is a huge amount of grief and guilt swirling through the story. The writing skilfully takes us through the lives of the three generations of Blyth's family, back and forth through the years. You never quite know where to place your sympathy. but neither do you condemn as you read. With short chapters and an economical style, you find you fly through the pages and the final line does not disappoint.
In short: The sins of the mother...
About the Author
ASHLEY AUDRAIN began writing The Push after leaving her job
as Publicity Director at Penguin Books Canada to raise her two young children.
The experience of being a new mother inspired Ashley to write about the idea of
motherhood and expectations, and what happens if that experience turns out to
be nothing like it’s supposed to be.At Penguin, Ashley worked with bestselling
authors including Khaled Hosseini, Elizabeth Gilbert, and Meg Wolitzer.
Dear Reader,
I started writing THE PUSH when my son was six
months old. I was going into motherhood with some trepidation to begin with,
but when he was born with health challenges, I found myself wondering, “Am I
the right mother for thi s child? Can I
really do this?”
I thought a lot about society’s expectations of motherhood, the
expectations we have of ourselves as mothers, and the way we learn to mother (I
was saved in those days, I think, by own mother, who came to the hospital every
day, often doing the things for my son I just couldn’t). And so, as I wrote
during stolen moments over the next few years, those seeds of thought grew into
the story that is now THE PUSH.
My hope
is for THE PUSH to offer the kind of compulsive page-turning readthat I love to
find myself lost in late into the night. But most importantly, I hope for THE
PUSHto create conversation. About the expectations we have of women and
mothers, about the experiences we inherit from the women before us, about the
weight of loneliness, and about the repercussions of silencing women’s truths.
I
hope you’ll enjoy reading THE PUSH.
With sincere thanks,Ashley Audrain
You can follow Audrey here: Twitter
Book link: Amazon UK
Thanks to Audrey Audrain and Olivia Thomas of Penguin Random House for a copy of the book and a place on the tour.
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