Mother's Milk - Hardcover

St Aubyn, Edward

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0330435892 ISBN 13: 9780330435895

Publisher: Picador, 2006

Synopsis

The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family – the family featured in St. Aubyn’s praised trilogy, Some Hope – starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and compelling account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favour of his sons; to Mary, who’s consumed by her children and an overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother. All the while, St. Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once-illustrious family whose last vestige of wealth – an old house in the south of France – is about to be donated by Patrick’s mother to a New Age foundation.

An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery and assisted suicide, Mother’s Milk showcases Edward St. Aubyn’s luminous and acidic prose – and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy. Absorb Mother's Milk into your and bloodstream and postnatal depression will never seem the same again . . .

‘A masterpiece. Edward St. Aubyn is a writer of immense gifts. His wit, his profound intelligence and his exquisite control of a story that rapidly descends to the lower depths before somehow painfully rising again – all go to distinguish the trilogy as fiction of a truly rare and extraordinary quality’ Patrick McGrath on Some Hope

About this title

Review

'In the long-awaited Mother’s Milk, we catch up with the unforgettable hero of his trilogy Some Hope’ -- Sunday Telegraph Best Holiday Reads

'Mother's Milk was like gin to me, and tonic too, and he should
have won the Man Booker.' -- Nicholas Haslam, Spectator

'Probably the finest prose stylist in the world.'
-- The Week

'The Inheritance of Loss... was not the book I loved the best.
That was ...Mother's Milk' -- Anthony Quinn, Booker Judge, The Telegraph

Reminiscent of John Updike and Iris Murdoch by turns...bitingly satirical and unfailingly entertaining. -- Daily Mail

St Aubyn is a staggeringly good prose stylist and evidently has a big and open heart. -- The Times

`St Aubyn's books are so precise and crystalline...Like a finely
cut diamond, they shimmer with clarity, comedy and poignancy.' -- Mary Ann Sieghart, The Times

‘A witty, perceptive and complex family portrait...Mother’s Milk showcases St Aubyn’s luminous and acidic prose' -- Herald Express

‘I won’t be surprised to find Mother’s Milk by Edward St Aubyn on this year’s Booker shortlist...compelling' -- Mariella Frostrup, Guardian Summer Reading Pick

‘Pack [Mother’s Milk] with Some Hope. ... A brilliantly well-written novel which resonates for a long time’ -- Independent on Sunday, Summer Reads

From the Publisher

Winner of the South Bank Show Award for Literature

About this edition

• Publisher: Picador
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 0330435892
• ISBN 13: 9780330435895
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 5
• Number of pages: 288