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Mothers and Sons
A mother and son, estranged but yearning for reunion, reckon at last with the secret that has kept them apart for decades in this highly anticipated novel by "one of the country's most talented writers" (Wall Street Journal)
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of his clients only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago banished from her mind the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter’s case plunges him further into the memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life forever, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and what might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (New York Times).
At forty, Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of his clients only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him.
Ann, his mother, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father, is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but cherishes the world she has built. She long ago banished from her mind the decision that divided her from her son. But as Peter’s case plunges him further into the memory of his first love and the night of violence that changed his life forever, he and his mother must confront the secret that tore them apart.
With unsurpassed emotional depth, Mothers and Sons reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and what might be restored by facing it. In his spellbinding new novel, Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of “a rich assortment of literary gifts” (New York Times).
336 pages, Hardcover
First published January 7, 2025
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15657 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 622 reviews
December 16, 2025
As Donald Trump plots to expel millions of people who he claims — with Hitlerian flourish — are “poisoning the blood of our country,” Adam Haslett’s new novel, “Mothers and Sons,” could not be more timely. Haslett draws us into the life of Peter Fischer, an immigration lawyer determined to raise up the story of suffering behind each asylum seeker he represents.
Be grateful you’re not paying Peter by the hour. He never sleeps. And never complains about his Sisyphean caseload, which would send anyone else scurrying off to the supply closet to scream into a pile of legal pads. The opening section of “Mothers and Sons” manhandles us through a dizzying cycle of court appearances, department meetings, voicemails and interviews with some of his dozens of clients. He stopped keeping count when the total became too unnerving.
The folks whom Peter represents sing a cacophonous chorus of international horrors that requires him to be conversant in politics around the world. “I read State Department reports,” he says, “NGO reports, newspaper articles, expert witness testimony scraped from filings in other cases, anything I can vacuum up off the internet before having to email experts myself and begin the process of cajoling and bargaining and scheduling them.”
Haslett earned a law degree at Yale even after it became clear that his future was in fiction writing. “You Are Not a Stranger Here,” the story collection he started before graduating, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize — as was his second novel, “Imagine Me Gone.” But that legal training was hardly wasted. Here he draws on it to convey....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
Be grateful you’re not paying Peter by the hour. He never sleeps. And never complains about his Sisyphean caseload, which would send anyone else scurrying off to the supply closet to scream into a pile of legal pads. The opening section of “Mothers and Sons” manhandles us through a dizzying cycle of court appearances, department meetings, voicemails and interviews with some of his dozens of clients. He stopped keeping count when the total became too unnerving.
The folks whom Peter represents sing a cacophonous chorus of international horrors that requires him to be conversant in politics around the world. “I read State Department reports,” he says, “NGO reports, newspaper articles, expert witness testimony scraped from filings in other cases, anything I can vacuum up off the internet before having to email experts myself and begin the process of cajoling and bargaining and scheduling them.”
Haslett earned a law degree at Yale even after it became clear that his future was in fiction writing. “You Are Not a Stranger Here,” the story collection he started before graduating, was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize — as was his second novel, “Imagine Me Gone.” But that legal training was hardly wasted. Here he draws on it to convey....
To read the rest of this review, go to The Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/books/...
January 20, 2025
What I found most powerful about this novel is its message about confronting the past and why we must do it. Mothers and Sons follows Peter, a forty-year-old overworked immigration lawyer who lives in New York City. He has a distant relationship with his mother and a slightly less though still distant relationship with his sister, and he works all the time. Until he takes a case that brings back memories of a tragic event from his childhood, forcing him to address the incident that’s made him bury himself in work for all these years.
Adam Haslett does a great job of highlighting how work can both be a source of meaning and avoidance. Especially for those of us in professions that involve helping people, how helping others can be a way to avoid addressing our own internal issues. Haslett thoughtfully rendered this intrapersonal dynamic across two generations (i.e., Peter and his mother).
I also thought Haslett’s prose shined when he wrote about interpersonal dynamics as it did in his past novels Imagine Me Gone and You Are Not a Stranger Here. The ways we hurt the people we care about, don’t listen to what they’re actually saying, try and protect ourselves – he laid it bare and showed the characters’ growth over time, too.
There were parts of this novel that came across as a bit dry or plodding. For example, all of Peter’s immigration work – I get that it was important to show because Peter is actively avoiding his own issues via his work, so I’m not sure if there was another way structurally for Haslett to have displayed this part of his character. Regardless, as a whole Haslett’s prose is strong and engaging and I more often found myself immersed in this book than turned off by it. Solid four star read.
Adam Haslett does a great job of highlighting how work can both be a source of meaning and avoidance. Especially for those of us in professions that involve helping people, how helping others can be a way to avoid addressing our own internal issues. Haslett thoughtfully rendered this intrapersonal dynamic across two generations (i.e., Peter and his mother).
I also thought Haslett’s prose shined when he wrote about interpersonal dynamics as it did in his past novels Imagine Me Gone and You Are Not a Stranger Here. The ways we hurt the people we care about, don’t listen to what they’re actually saying, try and protect ourselves – he laid it bare and showed the characters’ growth over time, too.
There were parts of this novel that came across as a bit dry or plodding. For example, all of Peter’s immigration work – I get that it was important to show because Peter is actively avoiding his own issues via his work, so I’m not sure if there was another way structurally for Haslett to have displayed this part of his character. Regardless, as a whole Haslett’s prose is strong and engaging and I more often found myself immersed in this book than turned off by it. Solid four star read.
December 27, 2024
As the first legit rating and review of Haslett's brilliant new novel here on GR, it delights me to be able to give it an unequivocable rave. Many thanks to Netgalley, Little Brown and Company, and the author for providing an ARC eBook copy, six months before publication, in exchange for this honest and enthusiastic review.
It's been eight long years since Haslett's last novel, the equally enthralling Imagine Me Gone, which was my favorite book of 2016; I was oddly enough wondering just recently what had happened to him, when I became aware of this new one - which was certainly worth the wait. Haslett has only published three books prior to this and has two Pulitzer Prize and two NBA nominations for those - and suspect this will also garner major awards notice and perhaps finally get him the accolades and awards he so richly deserves.
The story is in essence three separate strands, told in alternating sections: Peter, the MC, is a 40-year-old gay lawyer specializing in immigration and deportation cases, defending undocumented aliens, usually the victims of violence in their native lands, from facing extradition, who narrates his story in first person.
The other major titular character is his mother Ann, whose story is told in omniscient third person, from whom Peter has been estranged for some 25 years; she and her partner Clare run a women's retreat center in Vermont, which Peter's derisive and snarky sister Liz refers to as 'lesbian camp'.
The third strand is flashbacks to when Peter was an inquisitive 15 year-old, first becoming aware of his same-sex attraction, and his relationship with Jared, a beautiful older boy, that results in a devastating and shocking act that colors his entire life and is responsible for his estrangement from Ann.
Although the book is tightly plotted and thematically cohesive, as with most literary fiction, it is thoroughly character driven - and as well as Peter and Ann, it explores several other mother/son combinations: Peter's Albanian client Vasel and his protective mother; his Honduran client Sandra, and her son Felipe; Liz and her adorable 5-year-old rascal, Charlie; Jared and his intriguingly beautiful mother Susan; and even Peter's father Richard's own troubles with his mother.
The sections dealing with Peter's work as an immigration lawyer COULD have been rather boring and tedious, but Haslett makes it all fascinating - he himself has a JD from Yale (over-achiever much, Mr. Haslett? :-) ) ... and his expertise in that arena definitely shows here.
I don't want to get into more specifics on the plot for danger of spoilers, but let me just add that, as always, Haslett's prose is effortlessly and propulsively readable (I finished the entire 336 pages in less than 48 hours!), without being overly pretentious or flowery. I am certain this will end up as one of my top three reads of 2024, if not #1. And the last 40 pages are the most satisfying/devastating I've read since Shuggie Bain - high praise indeed!
PS: And perhaps damning with faint praise, but in the right hands, this would make a terrific film: Meryl Streep, call your agent! she would be a shoo-in for playing Ann! Bradley Cooper as Peter! Cate Blanchett as Clare! Aubrey Plaza as Liz! Julianne Moore for Susan! Jacob Elordi as Jared! Lily Gladstone for Jeanette! ... does anyone else cast the characters as they read?!! :-)
It's been eight long years since Haslett's last novel, the equally enthralling Imagine Me Gone, which was my favorite book of 2016; I was oddly enough wondering just recently what had happened to him, when I became aware of this new one - which was certainly worth the wait. Haslett has only published three books prior to this and has two Pulitzer Prize and two NBA nominations for those - and suspect this will also garner major awards notice and perhaps finally get him the accolades and awards he so richly deserves.
The story is in essence three separate strands, told in alternating sections: Peter, the MC, is a 40-year-old gay lawyer specializing in immigration and deportation cases, defending undocumented aliens, usually the victims of violence in their native lands, from facing extradition, who narrates his story in first person.
The other major titular character is his mother Ann, whose story is told in omniscient third person, from whom Peter has been estranged for some 25 years; she and her partner Clare run a women's retreat center in Vermont, which Peter's derisive and snarky sister Liz refers to as 'lesbian camp'.
The third strand is flashbacks to when Peter was an inquisitive 15 year-old, first becoming aware of his same-sex attraction, and his relationship with Jared, a beautiful older boy, that results in a devastating and shocking act that colors his entire life and is responsible for his estrangement from Ann.
Although the book is tightly plotted and thematically cohesive, as with most literary fiction, it is thoroughly character driven - and as well as Peter and Ann, it explores several other mother/son combinations: Peter's Albanian client Vasel and his protective mother; his Honduran client Sandra, and her son Felipe; Liz and her adorable 5-year-old rascal, Charlie; Jared and his intriguingly beautiful mother Susan; and even Peter's father Richard's own troubles with his mother.
The sections dealing with Peter's work as an immigration lawyer COULD have been rather boring and tedious, but Haslett makes it all fascinating - he himself has a JD from Yale (over-achiever much, Mr. Haslett? :-) ) ... and his expertise in that arena definitely shows here.
I don't want to get into more specifics on the plot for danger of spoilers, but let me just add that, as always, Haslett's prose is effortlessly and propulsively readable (I finished the entire 336 pages in less than 48 hours!), without being overly pretentious or flowery. I am certain this will end up as one of my top three reads of 2024, if not #1. And the last 40 pages are the most satisfying/devastating I've read since Shuggie Bain - high praise indeed!
PS: And perhaps damning with faint praise, but in the right hands, this would make a terrific film: Meryl Streep, call your agent! she would be a shoo-in for playing Ann! Bradley Cooper as Peter! Cate Blanchett as Clare! Aubrey Plaza as Liz! Julianne Moore for Susan! Jacob Elordi as Jared! Lily Gladstone for Jeanette! ... does anyone else cast the characters as they read?!! :-)
Read
March 30, 2025Almost unanimously the people I know here on goodreads who have read this novel have given it 4 or 5 stars. They have written reviews about how much the story moved them. My hard-hearted reasons for not singing this book's praises here in this review lie behind the spoiler tag, both because they're spoilers, and because I feel so bad about my tiny soul's inability to love this book more than I did.
March 29, 2025
I am not good at hiding my feelings. In fact, I have to be very careful that they don’t always show on my face. Yet at the same time, I like to wear my feelings openly, with a compassionate heart, as much as possible. And, I think this is what has allowed me to continue to have a close relationship with my adult sons. We may not live close in proximity, but we are always close. They know they can share anything with me – and they do. (Sometimes details I would rather not have, if you know what I mean!) But I will take that over not having a relationship with them. Even at this late stage of my life. And, maybe perhaps because of this late stage of my life. Thus, even the idea of suppressing feelings, or hiding them from those I love, especially my sons, at any time in my life would be hard to do.
With this story, the exact opposite of what I would desire occurs. We have Peter, a 40-year-old lawyer in New York City, who doesn’t see or call his mother, Ann much at all, if at all. Ann is a former priest who with her partner, Clare leads retreats in Vermont for women.
So, why the distance between these 2 characters – this mother and son? Could it be that an accident that occurred when Peter was younger, and only his mother knows the truth about it, keeps him away from her? Did the accident create such an impact on Peter’s life that he now buries himself in work and meaningless relationships? Will there be a breaking point for him – that can get him through this façade?
Ann is a character swimming in gratitude and self-reflection. Namaste. Something Peter could benefit from, if he were willing. So, what will it take for this to occur?
And, what will it take to reconnect Peter to his estranged mother?
To readers it appears obvious that Peter needs Ann. When and what will it take for both of them to realize this?
What is the dynamic of mother and son relationships that play so dramatically here? How long will Peter protect himself from Peter before he is able to live a meaningful life? Can he overcome his past and some of his perceptions about himself, his mother, his father, or even his own relationships?
These are characters that are deeply flawed, but you want to hug them and hope for them still, in this moving, complicated story. Perfect for book discussion groups.
With this story, the exact opposite of what I would desire occurs. We have Peter, a 40-year-old lawyer in New York City, who doesn’t see or call his mother, Ann much at all, if at all. Ann is a former priest who with her partner, Clare leads retreats in Vermont for women.
So, why the distance between these 2 characters – this mother and son? Could it be that an accident that occurred when Peter was younger, and only his mother knows the truth about it, keeps him away from her? Did the accident create such an impact on Peter’s life that he now buries himself in work and meaningless relationships? Will there be a breaking point for him – that can get him through this façade?
Ann is a character swimming in gratitude and self-reflection. Namaste. Something Peter could benefit from, if he were willing. So, what will it take for this to occur?
And, what will it take to reconnect Peter to his estranged mother?
To readers it appears obvious that Peter needs Ann. When and what will it take for both of them to realize this?
What is the dynamic of mother and son relationships that play so dramatically here? How long will Peter protect himself from Peter before he is able to live a meaningful life? Can he overcome his past and some of his perceptions about himself, his mother, his father, or even his own relationships?
These are characters that are deeply flawed, but you want to hug them and hope for them still, in this moving, complicated story. Perfect for book discussion groups.
January 29, 2025
4.5, rounded slightly down. I found this much more austere and restrained than Haslett's superb 2016 novel Imagine Me Gone, but equally satisfying emotionally. This is the second novel I've recently read about the relationship between a gay adult son and his gay mother (the other is Alan Hollinghurst's operatically maximalist Our Evenings).
Peter Fischer, our first-person narrator, is a workaholic immigration lawyer in Obama-era Manhattan (a time that now feels like ancient history), working for a nonprofit firm handling asylum cases. Quietly estranged from his mother and sister, Peter is incapable of building lasting romantic relationships beyond momentary hookups. In the novel's prologue, Peter elliptically describes an incident with another teenage boy (an original sin?) that still haunts him with guilt and shame and deeply repressed pain. When Peter takes a case defending a young man fleeing homophobic persecution from his family in his native Albania, he slowly comes to terms with the painful rupture that determined the course of his adult life.
Haslett uses third-person narration to observe Peter's mother Ann, a former Episcopalian priest who left her church and marriage to Peter's father when she fell deeply in love with a female parishioner. Running a spiritual retreat center for women in northern Vermont with her wife Clare, Ann has devoted her life to healing other people's pain. When Peter finally reunites with Ann, their moments of closure and forgiveness were genuinely moving and sometimes shocking.
But Haslett was drawing parallels between their personal narratives that were a bit too schematic, especially when Peter himself realizes that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves inevitably flatten out the irreducible complexities of our own lives.
Peter Fischer, our first-person narrator, is a workaholic immigration lawyer in Obama-era Manhattan (a time that now feels like ancient history), working for a nonprofit firm handling asylum cases. Quietly estranged from his mother and sister, Peter is incapable of building lasting romantic relationships beyond momentary hookups. In the novel's prologue, Peter elliptically describes an incident with another teenage boy (an original sin?) that still haunts him with guilt and shame and deeply repressed pain. When Peter takes a case defending a young man fleeing homophobic persecution from his family in his native Albania, he slowly comes to terms with the painful rupture that determined the course of his adult life.
Haslett uses third-person narration to observe Peter's mother Ann, a former Episcopalian priest who left her church and marriage to Peter's father when she fell deeply in love with a female parishioner. Running a spiritual retreat center for women in northern Vermont with her wife Clare, Ann has devoted her life to healing other people's pain. When Peter finally reunites with Ann, their moments of closure and forgiveness were genuinely moving and sometimes shocking.
But Haslett was drawing parallels between their personal narratives that were a bit too schematic, especially when Peter himself realizes that the stories we tell ourselves about ourselves inevitably flatten out the irreducible complexities of our own lives.
Want to read
July 1, 2024Please send it to me Rachel!!!!
December 31, 2024
Grateful I got an arc of this book! I knew I would connect to the story because of things in my personal life. This is such a profound and well written novel. I wish I had it on my Kindle so I could share the passages I loved and resonated with. You can tell this book was written by a very emotionally intelligent man. I feel better for having read it.
January 13, 2025
I was intrigued by the premise of this book but unfortunately I was expecting one thing from the synopsis and title and the story delivered something totally different.
Mothers and Sons promised to be a story about a gay immigration lawyer unable to emotionally connect with his lover who is still troubled by the loss of his first love, who is estranged from his mother, a gay female minister who runs a progressive religious retreat in Vermont.
I thought it was going to be a moving literary story full of interiority about a man representing a sexual orientation case as he reconciles with his mother.
Instead they seemed to operate two completely separate orbits as they were uninteresting, self-absorbed workaholics who each found their only fulfillment in their jobs to the detriment of their relationships, with a reconciliation scene at the end. The first half of the book was very slow and went into a mundane deep dive on the day to day practice of being a lawyer (though the duties described were more paralegal work - lawyers don't format footnotes!) and as I am a legal assistant for a day job, I quickly became bored without any emotional dimension. It was interesting to see the day to day life of an immigration lawyer, but it was portrayed in such a sterile way that I felt like I was at work. Accurate, sure, but not engaging, unless you don't know the legal profession at all and think the procedural nitty gritty is glamorous.
Mother and son barely reflected on their relationship and I felt like I didn't care to know their history after awhile because I developed such a strong dislike to each of them. It was well-written with very blunt prose; I just was not the right reader for this book at all. It was like a series of bare-bones portraits about unlikable and dysfunctional mothers and sons without much reflection or deeper themes or transformation.
I then skimmed the last half of the book because I got so bored with the story.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
Mothers and Sons promised to be a story about a gay immigration lawyer unable to emotionally connect with his lover who is still troubled by the loss of his first love, who is estranged from his mother, a gay female minister who runs a progressive religious retreat in Vermont.
I thought it was going to be a moving literary story full of interiority about a man representing a sexual orientation case as he reconciles with his mother.
Instead they seemed to operate two completely separate orbits as they were uninteresting, self-absorbed workaholics who each found their only fulfillment in their jobs to the detriment of their relationships, with a reconciliation scene at the end. The first half of the book was very slow and went into a mundane deep dive on the day to day practice of being a lawyer (though the duties described were more paralegal work - lawyers don't format footnotes!) and as I am a legal assistant for a day job, I quickly became bored without any emotional dimension. It was interesting to see the day to day life of an immigration lawyer, but it was portrayed in such a sterile way that I felt like I was at work. Accurate, sure, but not engaging, unless you don't know the legal profession at all and think the procedural nitty gritty is glamorous.
Mother and son barely reflected on their relationship and I felt like I didn't care to know their history after awhile because I developed such a strong dislike to each of them. It was well-written with very blunt prose; I just was not the right reader for this book at all. It was like a series of bare-bones portraits about unlikable and dysfunctional mothers and sons without much reflection or deeper themes or transformation.
I then skimmed the last half of the book because I got so bored with the story.
Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for the advance review copy. I am leaving this review voluntarily.
August 30, 2025
3.5
This novel is about a mother and a son. The mother is Ann, a former Episcopalian priest, who's now running a retreat in Vermont with her partner of twenty years, Clare.
Peter is a gay lawyer, specialising in immigration and asylum, as far as I'm concerned - he's the good kind of lawyer. But my goodness, he's so closed down and, sorry/not sorry, boring - nobody would accuse him of being a gay gay. :-) We later learn his reasons/excuses for leading such a life, one devoid of pleasure (except for short sexual hookups), and connection to anyone.
There are several "cases" that showcase the hardships and atrocities faced by the illegal immigrants and refugees in their native countries, not that experiencing the US immigration/legal system is a walk in the park. (How beyond ironic that those poor souls saw the US as a free country, considering what's been happening). Anyway, despite being on the side of those people, at times, I thought the cases Peter was on were presented in too much detail, giving the impression of filler stories.
The tales we tell ourselves, convinced they are real, are not always the truth. One just has to check in with a sibling - and you might be surprised to discover how differently you perceived and experienced certain important moments.
It's infuriating how many things are left undiscussed, unchallenged, which in turn fester and make relationships worse. Many a times, one would discover that the other person who had "wronged" you, has no idea they had - because you never talked about it! I may be projecting. :-)
This was imperfect, I wanted a bit more - but generally speaking, I don't regret spending the time listening to the audiobook.
This novel is about a mother and a son. The mother is Ann, a former Episcopalian priest, who's now running a retreat in Vermont with her partner of twenty years, Clare.
Peter is a gay lawyer, specialising in immigration and asylum, as far as I'm concerned - he's the good kind of lawyer. But my goodness, he's so closed down and, sorry/not sorry, boring - nobody would accuse him of being a gay gay. :-) We later learn his reasons/excuses for leading such a life, one devoid of pleasure (except for short sexual hookups), and connection to anyone.
There are several "cases" that showcase the hardships and atrocities faced by the illegal immigrants and refugees in their native countries, not that experiencing the US immigration/legal system is a walk in the park. (How beyond ironic that those poor souls saw the US as a free country, considering what's been happening). Anyway, despite being on the side of those people, at times, I thought the cases Peter was on were presented in too much detail, giving the impression of filler stories.
The tales we tell ourselves, convinced they are real, are not always the truth. One just has to check in with a sibling - and you might be surprised to discover how differently you perceived and experienced certain important moments.
It's infuriating how many things are left undiscussed, unchallenged, which in turn fester and make relationships worse. Many a times, one would discover that the other person who had "wronged" you, has no idea they had - because you never talked about it! I may be projecting. :-)
This was imperfect, I wanted a bit more - but generally speaking, I don't regret spending the time listening to the audiobook.
January 29, 2025
'Mothers and Sons' is a topical and occasionally upsetting novel about Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, and his mother Ann, who runs a women's retreat centre in Vermont. Both are experts at being there for other people, but their own relationship has become almost non-existent. Peter seems only slightly affected by the harrowing stories he hears every day, but once he gets a case of a young gay man he becomes totally undone. Slowly, you discover why this particular case has such an impact on him and why he has been estranged from his mother. A character driven, beautifully told novel about human relationships, full of empathy and insight.
Thank you Little, Brown and Edelweiss for the ARC.
Thank you Little, Brown and Edelweiss for the ARC.
April 21, 2025
Yesterday I went to see a double feature at MoMA with a brilliant friend (whom some of my GR friends know from his past engagement here) who teaches me about film, but who has not engaged a ton with visual art which is one of my great passions. We had half an hour between features, so I ran him up to the 4th floor to see a couple of Pollock's I like. Jackson Pollock is probably my favorite 20th-century artist, though he has competition. Hung nearby were a number of paintings in a style similar to Pollock. I like this placement because it shows anyone who thinks Pollock just splattered paint how intentional his work is and how it is exponentially better than the work of any of those other artists. That is not to say their work is not good. Some of it really is. But the other works are not transcendent and synesthetic like Pollock's. Looking at those juxtaposed works, and explaining my thoughts and feelings when I was close to the end of this book clarified my thoughts about this one.
This is a good book. In fact this is a very good book. And yet, it immediately calls to mind other writers and books, for reasons of both subject and style, that are just better than very good. I recommend this book, but it evokes great books like Crossroads or the Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead series (especially the first two books, Gilead and Home), and Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. I don't mean to imply there are not many books that have been and are to be written about families where there is love but there is even more pain and disconnection because people are unable to communicate in ways that matter and create connection and safety. Hell, I could write that book and so could most people I know. And we all have different stories with that same foundation because, to crib from Leo Tolstoy, "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." All I am saying is that if one is limited in their available reading time for books about families where the members love and care about one another but cannot communicate, this is a good one but there a a number of other books I would get to first because IMO they they transcend the story to get to larger truths, and I don't think this one does that.
Briefly, the book tells the story of Peter, an asylum lawyer living a sad life in New York. Peter has no friends and only the most superficial connections to co-workers. He does nothing but work and occasionally hook up for purposes of release, not connection. It also tells the story of Ann, Peter's mother, but largely only insofar as Ann's story defines Peter's. Peter has distanced himself from possible feelings by immersing himself in other people's profound tragedies. One thing I liked very much was the way Haslett told the stories of people seeking asylum in the US (not that we do that anymore.) Most Americans have no idea what these strangers seeking safety have lived through. That makes it easy for those people to treat refugees with disdain rather than welcome. Ann does some things similar to Peter, though she at least has friends and a partner and some relationship with her other child. Ann is a former Anglican priest and current hospice chaplain who runs a feminist "intentional community" for women with her partner. When emotionally difficult things happen with her family, she assumes the rational remove of the hospice pastor and spirit guide to keep from fully engaging with her loved ones, though she longs for the connection. (The book seems to imply at the end that these people immerse themselves in others' tragedies so they can use that to work through their own relationships to violence and loss. If that is what Haslett was trying to say, I don't think he wrote that well.) Peter takes on a case that triggers him to relive a traumatic period in his past which is what led to his life of emotional shutdown, and to some of his anger at his mother, from whom he is largely estranged. This forces a sort of come-to-Jesus moment for Ann and Peter where they are forced to deal with the aforementioned traumatic series of events and their ties to the violence perpetrated by the patriarchy and Western imperialism. That last part felt a little tacked on, but it did not annoy so much as baffle me. I thought the book's pacing was off in all of this. A LOT of time is spent on this case that triggers Peter, and mostly it was unnecessary and unhelpful in telling Peter's story or in moving toward any sort of resolution. The resolution, when it comes, has some great moments, but is rushed, I believe would have been better if more time had been spent moving toward resolution rather than just giving us a couple of convenient critical conversations, and less time had been spent on Peter's obsession with the coming of age of a traumatized Albanian twink. (The resolution of that storyline was also rushed and ended up feeling facile.) I also think it would have helped to know more about Ann because she is clearly running from her family of origin, and other than the fact that her lineage is loaded with those patriarchal imperialists we don't know why. I did not connect to her at all, and I think it was because she was not well developed. Not telling more of her origin story would have been fine if Haslett did not spend so much time on other parts of her current story. It left a lot of "why?" moments.
A couple of things worth mentioning: I liked that Haslett seems to deeply understand the law, the legal process, and lawyers both in biglaw and public interest. I have been cast out of so many books because the writers get so much wrong, but this is spot on. And he writes movingly and beautifully about asylees and their families. The other thing is that I listened to this, and I thought the narrator, Andrew Gibson, was very good. The other narrator, Janet Metzger, was just fine but a bit flat.
A solid 4-star read.
This is a good book. In fact this is a very good book. And yet, it immediately calls to mind other writers and books, for reasons of both subject and style, that are just better than very good. I recommend this book, but it evokes great books like Crossroads or the Corrections by Jonathan Franzen, Marilynne Robinson's Gilead series (especially the first two books, Gilead and Home), and Ocean Vuong's On Earth We're Briefly Gorgeous. I don't mean to imply there are not many books that have been and are to be written about families where there is love but there is even more pain and disconnection because people are unable to communicate in ways that matter and create connection and safety. Hell, I could write that book and so could most people I know. And we all have different stories with that same foundation because, to crib from Leo Tolstoy, "every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way." All I am saying is that if one is limited in their available reading time for books about families where the members love and care about one another but cannot communicate, this is a good one but there a a number of other books I would get to first because IMO they they transcend the story to get to larger truths, and I don't think this one does that.
Briefly, the book tells the story of Peter, an asylum lawyer living a sad life in New York. Peter has no friends and only the most superficial connections to co-workers. He does nothing but work and occasionally hook up for purposes of release, not connection. It also tells the story of Ann, Peter's mother, but largely only insofar as Ann's story defines Peter's. Peter has distanced himself from possible feelings by immersing himself in other people's profound tragedies. One thing I liked very much was the way Haslett told the stories of people seeking asylum in the US (not that we do that anymore.) Most Americans have no idea what these strangers seeking safety have lived through. That makes it easy for those people to treat refugees with disdain rather than welcome. Ann does some things similar to Peter, though she at least has friends and a partner and some relationship with her other child. Ann is a former Anglican priest and current hospice chaplain who runs a feminist "intentional community" for women with her partner. When emotionally difficult things happen with her family, she assumes the rational remove of the hospice pastor and spirit guide to keep from fully engaging with her loved ones, though she longs for the connection. (The book seems to imply at the end that these people immerse themselves in others' tragedies so they can use that to work through their own relationships to violence and loss. If that is what Haslett was trying to say, I don't think he wrote that well.) Peter takes on a case that triggers him to relive a traumatic period in his past which is what led to his life of emotional shutdown, and to some of his anger at his mother, from whom he is largely estranged. This forces a sort of come-to-Jesus moment for Ann and Peter where they are forced to deal with the aforementioned traumatic series of events and their ties to the violence perpetrated by the patriarchy and Western imperialism. That last part felt a little tacked on, but it did not annoy so much as baffle me. I thought the book's pacing was off in all of this. A LOT of time is spent on this case that triggers Peter, and mostly it was unnecessary and unhelpful in telling Peter's story or in moving toward any sort of resolution. The resolution, when it comes, has some great moments, but is rushed, I believe would have been better if more time had been spent moving toward resolution rather than just giving us a couple of convenient critical conversations, and less time had been spent on Peter's obsession with the coming of age of a traumatized Albanian twink. (The resolution of that storyline was also rushed and ended up feeling facile.) I also think it would have helped to know more about Ann because she is clearly running from her family of origin, and other than the fact that her lineage is loaded with those patriarchal imperialists we don't know why. I did not connect to her at all, and I think it was because she was not well developed. Not telling more of her origin story would have been fine if Haslett did not spend so much time on other parts of her current story. It left a lot of "why?" moments.
A couple of things worth mentioning: I liked that Haslett seems to deeply understand the law, the legal process, and lawyers both in biglaw and public interest. I have been cast out of so many books because the writers get so much wrong, but this is spot on. And he writes movingly and beautifully about asylees and their families. The other thing is that I listened to this, and I thought the narrator, Andrew Gibson, was very good. The other narrator, Janet Metzger, was just fine but a bit flat.
A solid 4-star read.
January 20, 2025
4.5 stars
I listened to the audiobook, though at this writing that wasn’t one of the editions available in the Goodreads list to indicate which edition I completed. And it was beautifully narrated by the two readers, Janet Metzger for the mother character and Adam Gibson for the son. (Though I do wish someone had informed Gibson that he mispronounced New York’s Houston Street throughout. It’s not “Houston” like the Texas city, but sounds like “How-ston.” What a snob I am, right? But if you know, you know, and it’s irritating. At least he was consistent—he got it wrong every time!)
But back to the book itself, which was an engaging, beautifully constructed novel in which Peter, a 40-ish asylum lawyer in New York, who has long been estranged from his mother, is driven by one of his cases into memories of the climactic night in his teens that created the emotional rupture from his mother. Themes of homosexuality, hidden and otherwise, family dynamics, and forgiveness.
I listened to the audiobook, though at this writing that wasn’t one of the editions available in the Goodreads list to indicate which edition I completed. And it was beautifully narrated by the two readers, Janet Metzger for the mother character and Adam Gibson for the son. (Though I do wish someone had informed Gibson that he mispronounced New York’s Houston Street throughout. It’s not “Houston” like the Texas city, but sounds like “How-ston.” What a snob I am, right? But if you know, you know, and it’s irritating. At least he was consistent—he got it wrong every time!)
But back to the book itself, which was an engaging, beautifully constructed novel in which Peter, a 40-ish asylum lawyer in New York, who has long been estranged from his mother, is driven by one of his cases into memories of the climactic night in his teens that created the emotional rupture from his mother. Themes of homosexuality, hidden and otherwise, family dynamics, and forgiveness.
March 17, 2025
3.4/ This was well written but for me, it didn't have a lot of life and verve. It doesn't do anything wrong-- the story unfolds, information is gained and uncovered layer by layer, characters are complicated and real... but I just didn't buy fully into the emotional stakes and as a result the ending lacked much of a punch. I thought the most interesting pieces concerned Peter's job as an immigration attorney and I wonder if we spent less time with Ann in Vermont and more time rooted in Peter's life and world, maybe it would've clicked in more me.
January 23, 2025
Adam Haslett writes so beautifully. A literary novelist who publishes a book roughly every five years, I will drop everything to read whatever he writes.
This is probably my least favorite of his three novels, but not because it's not good. It's very good! It's just heavy. The estranged mother and son at the heart of the novel are not happy people. The son--who frankly made a much bigger impression on me--seens almost depressive. He has his reasons. And Mr. Haslett is a great observer of the human condition. But there isn't a moment of levity to release tension. I know that the author has the capacity to be very funny, so this is the story he chose to tell. I'm glad I read it. But I sure hope he lightens things up, just a little, next time.
This is probably my least favorite of his three novels, but not because it's not good. It's very good! It's just heavy. The estranged mother and son at the heart of the novel are not happy people. The son--who frankly made a much bigger impression on me--seens almost depressive. He has his reasons. And Mr. Haslett is a great observer of the human condition. But there isn't a moment of levity to release tension. I know that the author has the capacity to be very funny, so this is the story he chose to tell. I'm glad I read it. But I sure hope he lightens things up, just a little, next time.
May 1, 2025
Adam Haslett possesses a unique talent for dissecting the human psyche, making his books utterly captivating. I adored 'Imagine Me Gone,' it's a firm favorite of mine. I also greatly enjoyed 'Mothers and Sons,' a novel where the characters gradually reveal their deeply hidden secrets with a powerful impact as the pieces fall into place. The story follows Peter, a forty-year-old asylum lawyer in New York, struggling to balance his demanding work with the fragmented remnants of a private life, clearly searching for anchors to sustain him. His world begins to unravel upon meeting Vasel Marku, an Albanian queer asylum seeker. It was a truly compelling journey! I eagerly await more novels from Adam Haslett; I've really missed reading his work.
April 27, 2025
Peter is a gay immigration attorney who buries himself in his work, always avoiding cases involving gay clients. He is estranged from his mother and is repressing thoughts of a past trauma in his life.
He takes a case for a young gay man that brings memories of his past crashing to the surface.
The beginning of this book was a bit dry. As the story built, I was pulled in.
First, I was fascinated by the stories of the immigrants in danger of deportation, and I say danger because many would be going back to life-threatening situations. This part of the book is unquestionably timely in light of recent mass-deportation efforts by our government. The manner in which Peter had to built cases for his clients to keep them in the country was enlightening for me.
Next, Peter’s backstory was heart-wrenching as was his client’s. Both had experiences of growing up gay when it was not ok. The client had a father whose humiliation at having a gay son was enough to drive him to harm the boy he’d always loved. Peter’s experience with first love was with a very popular and very in-the-closet boy who used him shamelessly and emotionally damaged him with a resultant tragedy that was covered up. That experience and the coverup of it clearly haunted Peter and impacted his relationships forever after.
Peter’s rocky relationship with his mother arose largely out of her well-meaning effort to save him from his disastrous mistake. It was also impacted by her repression of who she was and what that did to the family.
This book is Peter’s journey back into his repressed memories and his efforts to heal. It’s well-written and very thoughtful.
He takes a case for a young gay man that brings memories of his past crashing to the surface.
The beginning of this book was a bit dry. As the story built, I was pulled in.
First, I was fascinated by the stories of the immigrants in danger of deportation, and I say danger because many would be going back to life-threatening situations. This part of the book is unquestionably timely in light of recent mass-deportation efforts by our government. The manner in which Peter had to built cases for his clients to keep them in the country was enlightening for me.
Next, Peter’s backstory was heart-wrenching as was his client’s. Both had experiences of growing up gay when it was not ok. The client had a father whose humiliation at having a gay son was enough to drive him to harm the boy he’d always loved. Peter’s experience with first love was with a very popular and very in-the-closet boy who used him shamelessly and emotionally damaged him with a resultant tragedy that was covered up. That experience and the coverup of it clearly haunted Peter and impacted his relationships forever after.
Peter’s rocky relationship with his mother arose largely out of her well-meaning effort to save him from his disastrous mistake. It was also impacted by her repression of who she was and what that did to the family.
This book is Peter’s journey back into his repressed memories and his efforts to heal. It’s well-written and very thoughtful.
July 7, 2024
Mothers and Sons is a story of family, identity, and overcoming the past with themes of grief, love, and sexuality. The novel follows Peter, an asylum lawyer and Peter's mother, Ann, who runs a women's retreat. The story shifts between the two character's perspectives as it shows how their past separated them, and brought them together.
This book was a little hard to get through mostly because of its blunt writing style. There is a lot of information that the reader has to keep up with otherwise they'll be lost. Oftentimes I had to go back a few chapters to remember a certain character and their relation to one of the MCs. The different perspectives also proved to be challenging since, again, there is a lot to remember
The wide expanse of characters, scenes, and challenges causes the book to feel disconnected with itself. Almost as if it should be a multiple part series discussing each event individually.
Overall, this book was slightly overwhelming but still an interesting read. The parts where this novel truly shinned was when Peter was working as an asylum lawyer since it showcases a job that often gets overlooked. Which is why I recommend it to anyone a fan of legal fiction and stories about family.
This book was a little hard to get through mostly because of its blunt writing style. There is a lot of information that the reader has to keep up with otherwise they'll be lost. Oftentimes I had to go back a few chapters to remember a certain character and their relation to one of the MCs. The different perspectives also proved to be challenging since, again, there is a lot to remember
The wide expanse of characters, scenes, and challenges causes the book to feel disconnected with itself. Almost as if it should be a multiple part series discussing each event individually.
Overall, this book was slightly overwhelming but still an interesting read. The parts where this novel truly shinned was when Peter was working as an asylum lawyer since it showcases a job that often gets overlooked. Which is why I recommend it to anyone a fan of legal fiction and stories about family.
February 3, 2025
I have been in an evaluation period of family relationships and this book reminded me a lot of what I've been looking at. The imperfections of an upbringing by a person who was imperfectly brought up going back to the dawn of time. Are we getting any better at it? As a parent, I'd like to believe it but my failures as a mother are unique.
I like Haslett a lot and I thought this book was very well-done. I do think you need at least some family dysfunction to truly appreciate it. It took me a bit to get into the groove, but once I did I was fully immersed and I actually gasped when it ended because I didn't want it to.
Family is hard. This book is a realistic examination.
I like Haslett a lot and I thought this book was very well-done. I do think you need at least some family dysfunction to truly appreciate it. It took me a bit to get into the groove, but once I did I was fully immersed and I actually gasped when it ended because I didn't want it to.
Family is hard. This book is a realistic examination.
January 27, 2025
A very rich book with many layers.
Reading about immigration stories the first week of Trump 2 is both timely and scary.
What spoke to me on a more personal level was the way one’s profession can be an escape from one’s self and even from allowing one’s self to be too happy.
The sanctuary the three women create is fascinating as was the conversation with the Hospice Chaplain.
Violence against gay men is a theme in this book and it’s so discouraging to realize how staggeringly slow social progress is and how it seems to be moving backward.
Reading about immigration stories the first week of Trump 2 is both timely and scary.
What spoke to me on a more personal level was the way one’s profession can be an escape from one’s self and even from allowing one’s self to be too happy.
The sanctuary the three women create is fascinating as was the conversation with the Hospice Chaplain.
Violence against gay men is a theme in this book and it’s so discouraging to realize how staggeringly slow social progress is and how it seems to be moving backward.
November 21, 2024
4.5 Beautiful, heartbreaking, relatable.
So much of this story, though set in the past, is eerily timely. Stories of asylum seekers, of violence beyond our nation's borders, of fear and uncertainty within them. It's always been an underlying part of our nation's fabric, but perhaps more relevant and important now than ever.
Yet other levels of this book, of these characters, are universal. Our questions of who we are, how much is predetermined and how much we get to decide. The struggle to forgive, let go, grow beyond trauma. The uncertainty of what, we as parents, are allowed to do, to feel, to want and how that impacts our children.
So grateful to get to ponder this tale, these lessons, and this, my favorite line: What a waste a closed heart is.
So much of this story, though set in the past, is eerily timely. Stories of asylum seekers, of violence beyond our nation's borders, of fear and uncertainty within them. It's always been an underlying part of our nation's fabric, but perhaps more relevant and important now than ever.
Yet other levels of this book, of these characters, are universal. Our questions of who we are, how much is predetermined and how much we get to decide. The struggle to forgive, let go, grow beyond trauma. The uncertainty of what, we as parents, are allowed to do, to feel, to want and how that impacts our children.
So grateful to get to ponder this tale, these lessons, and this, my favorite line: What a waste a closed heart is.
August 16, 2024
Terrific novel, love the story, the structure, the writing. Some of the scenes are so moving. It's about a Legal Aid immigration lawyer and the clients who come to him trying to get asylum here by proving that they are in danger if they return home. The lawyer needs asylum, too, from the emotions and trauma of his past. All the storylines resonate; it's wonderful and heartfelt. I'll blog about this in a few days, at www.areadersplace.net
February 23, 2025
Books about family dynamics, particularly amongst parents and adult children, always appeal to me. There’s an interesting theme of the two main characters immersing themselves completely into their jobs; jobs which include probing into other peoples’ worst moments and greatest fears and insecurities; while ignoring and doing no self-exploration whatsoever into those types of issues in their own lives. Haslett writes beautifully about self-realization and pushing through pain to find peace, happiness, and purpose.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC.
Thank you to Goodreads Giveaways and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC.
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January 21, 20254.5
March 24, 2025
Haslett didn’t leave me quite as gutted as he did with Imagine Me Gone, but he still shows us his ability to write beautifully about family dynamics and human suffering.
June 30, 2025
Fantastic read about family and confronting and reconciling the past.
March 28, 2025
While translating the Portuguese edition of this novel, I felt an increasing sense of joy — not so much for the process itself, which is always painful and exhausting, but for sensing in Haslett's endeavor and increasingly rare quality in American literature: truth — in other words, the willingness to take risks (both aesthetic and thematic) while not yielding to the pressures and demands of an increasingly homogenized genre. That alone deserves all my respect.
June 21, 2025
I unfortunately just didn’t connect with these characters and it took SO. LONG. for their stories to finally intersect again in the present moment AND to finally reveal this big secret from their past that’s alluded to in the synopsis. I also found it confusing that Peter’s story is written in first person POV and Ann’s was in third person POV. That’s apparently a new pet peeve of mine. Peter’s timeline also gets a little murky and difficult to follow as he goes back and forth between the present day and these events in high school that he is (understandably) still haunted by. Of course Peter’s work as an immigration lawyer is especially relevant and important right now, and there are some beautifully written lines in here, but overall the structure didn’t work for me.
February 10, 2025
Adam Haslett breaks my heart and I thank him for it as usual. as soon as I started this book I didn’t want to do anything but read it. so many little things stuck out but I didn’t take the time to write them down because I didn’t want to stop reading, so I’ll have to go back through and find them. how do you even think of stuff like this? night swimming and patches on elbows. I know it’s called mothers and sons but the father and daughter got me too
January 31, 2025
Lovely writing although it got off to a slow start. Perhaps might have worked even better had it focused more on Peter than his mother's retreat in Vermont. Not sure I believe that Peter would have been blamed himself so entirely for what happened when he was a teenager.
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