The Lost Mother is a poignant, interweaving narrative about author Anne Summers' relationship with her mother, Eileen Hogan, told through her search for a lost painting of her mother as a child. In 1933, the artist Constance Parkin saw Summers' mother, a ten-year-old schoolgirl, at Mass one Sunday morning in Brighton. Evidently attracted by something about the young girl's features, Parkin asked if she might paint her portrait. Over the next few months, Parkin painted two portraits of Eileen: Alice, in which the schoolgirl holds a large Alice in Wonderland book; and A Saint, a religious painting in which the young girl is draped in fabric so as to appear like the Madonna. Alice was eventually purchased by Summers' grandmother from the Catholic Archdiocese in 1970. The whereabouts of A Saint remain unknown. Summers' search for the painting is simultaneously an intriguing literary mystery and a touching attempt to bring closure and understanding to her turbulent relationship with her mother.

By:   Anne Summers
Imprint:   MELBOURNE UNIVERSITY PRES
Country of Publication:   Australia
Dimensions:   Height: 30mm,  Width: 205mm,  Spine: 134mm
Weight:   480g
ISBN:  

9780522856354

ISBN 10:   0522856357
Pages:   288
Publication Date:   July 2009
Audience:   General/trade ,  College/higher education ,  ELT Advanced ,  Primary
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   In stock at Abbey's Bookshop
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Anne Summers is a bestselling author and columnist and a former editor-in-chief of landmark American feminist magazine, Ms. She was a political adviser to Prime Minister Paul Keating and ran the Office of the Status of Women for Prime Minister Bob Hawke from 1983 to 1986. Her books include Damned Whores and God's Police, Ducks on the Pond, On Luck, and The End of Equality.

'This is a most seductive novel. You'll be charmed by the novels heroine - her intelligence, her courage, her great heart. Despite her suffering - a lost love, a tragic family - there are moments you will want to cheer. It's the kind of novel where the writing is so fluid you feel the author simply loves telling her story. This is a splendid, heartwarming novel of pain, struggle, decency, triumph - and just what we need in these times.' Frank McCourt 'I loved this vividly researched and wonderfully rumbustious yarn - brilliantly told, great fun to read.' Simon Winchester 'The Tea Rose is the kind of book that calls for a rainy day, a cozy chair and a good, steaming cup of tea. It's strong and satisfying, with a taste that lingers in the memory.' Paula Cohen 'Bold, brisk and beguiling, The Tea Rose is a splendid brew of a book.' Sam Twining 'It's so much fun...This is London in the 1880s, the London of Charles Dickens and Edward Rutherford, a teeming, messy place full of business, dirt and poverty. Once in New York, we trip from the tenements of the Lower East Side to elegant dining at Delmonico's, with hardly a paragraph to catch our breath...The atmosphere of both starring cities is created in satisfying detail. One can walk the streets and listen to the people chat in the company of Jennifer Donnelly, who has done her historical homework...She delivers.' Washington Post

A bright, plucky, and (of course) beautiful Cockney girl escapes poverty and violence in the Whitechapel neighborhood of Victorian-era London to make her fortune in New York City. In Donnelly's sprawling debut, the heroine is heroic, the villains villainous (and rich), and the heroine's love interests in need of a strong woman like her to keep them out of trouble. Seventeen-year-old Fiona Finnegan's plans to open a shop with her childhood sweetheart Joe are dashed when Joe succumbs to the wiles of his boss's daughter and ends up in a shotgun wedding. Fiona's distress is compounded by her father's accidental death at the Burton Tea Company, where he was organizing a union, her mother's murder by Jack the Ripper, and her brother's drowning. When Fiona overhears William Burton, the cold-eyed, knife-wielding owner of Burton Tea, brag that he had her father murdered, she realizes her own life is in danger and flees to America. Befriended en route by a young art collector named Nick, Fiona is put off by neither his syphilis nor his homosexuality, an open-mindedness that rings false in the Victorian setting. Taking over her alcoholic uncle's failing business, Fiona becomes a successful grocer, and, although she still pines for Joe, she enjoys being wooed by a charming, prominent financier. Then Nick faces a homophobic scandal instigated by her wealthy suitor's son. Unaware that Joe, whose marriage ended when his wife miscarried, is still searching for her, Fiona marries Nick to save his reputation and settles into what turns into a happy if unconventional marriage. While amassing a fortune in the tea and grocery trade, Fiona secretly plans to wreak revenge on Burton. After Nick's death and extensive plotting, she returns to London, reunites with Joe, and causes Burton financial ruin, which brings out his murderous side. Or perhaps he was more murderous all along than in anyone's worst suspicions. Bland, despite the gruesome-deaths quotient. (Kirkus Reviews)