Night, Ma: A Memoir

by Elizabeth Knox

For three and a half years, calamities hit Elizabeth Knox and family in rapid succession. Her sister suffered a psychotic break and was hospitalised against her will, her husband’s brother died by violence, and her mother was diagnosed with motor neurone disease.

In time, she was able to write about it.

Night, Ma is a book about the net of family which people are held by, but also slip through. About the actual daily work of love; the physical and cognitive work love requires.

Knox is a beloved storyteller who has given us other worlds; now she invites us into her own. With characteristic generosity and transcendence, she guides us through time, illness, loss, and the loneliness of unutterable experiences.

Night, Ma offers the gift of seeing as Elizabeth sees.

Genres: Memoir, Nonfiction

376 pages, Paperback

Published April 9, 2026

About the author

Elizabeth Knox was born in Wellington‚ New Zealand‚ and is the author of eleven novels and three novella and a book of essays.

Reviews

[Kathryn Fathers · Rating 4 out of 5]

Hard to review this book. I found the early part a bit weird, but the later part most interesting. Well worth reading. How do people cope with so much tragedy?

[Clare Smith · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fabulous read. It takes courage to share stories as personal as this, especially when you are already in the public eye. I found having some insight into the forces behind Knox's previous works incredibly illuminating and the language was beautiful.

The authenticity expressed, particularly around how relationships and familial love can be complex, was refreshing and heartfelt. It was a unique experience as a reader with long term psychiatric health issues to read about how families perceive someone like Jo. Weirdly I found myself feeling like I could see myself from the outside.

This is a painful story at times, sadly not as shocking as you might expect and ultimately it was a very human story.

I have to agree with another review in that this had to be the most difficult book to hold onto to read. I thought it was just me being ridiculous lol.

[Amanda · Rating 2 out of 5]

This memoir suffered from too many words and too little editing. The attempt to keep the three intertwined primary events separate made for a choppy book. And, while I rarely have an opinion about the physical book, I found the weight of the paper and stiffness of the binding a barrier to enjoying the experience of reading Night, Ma.

[Virginia Wolf · Rating 3 out of 5]

Local author Elizabeth Knox has produced a largely compelling read about life and relationships - an especially courageous and forensic examination of the author’s sister. A portrait of one family’s eccentricities and communication dysfunction, terribly reinforced by the mother’s type of motor neurone disease. Some residual concern about the teenager invisible in all of this. The tragedy of the brother in law felt more removed and a little shoe horned into a narrative conceit. Some detail overwhelmed the point at times but a privilege to read quality writing about the places I know, love and live in.

[Jonathon Hagger · Rating 5 out of 5]

The deeply emotional writing is powerfully moving. The author captures beautifully such devastating and hard moments in life. The story about her with Motor Neurone Disease is particularly heartbreaking yet recounted so tenderly. Amazing story.

[Julie Daymond-King · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very honest and moving. She has a spiritual knowledge to envy. Ma gets a bit lost during the other incidents, so maybe I would award 4 and a half stars if I knew how. Rereading was rewarding.

[Monique Lepine · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful. I cried. I never cry.

[Fiona Gregory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a difficult read, harrowing at times. It’s a book about trauma and being a carer. It covers not only the three family “calamities” described in the first page, but also, in some detail, the childhood sexual abuse experienced by the author and her sisters. The sections about Elizabeth’s mother’s illness were tender and reflective, but I did find some sections of the book a bit uneven. You get a sense of the loneliness of experiencing events that are stigmatised and not talked about. This book won’t be for everyone but I commend her for writing it. 3.5 stars.