Replay Event: The Book of Mother with Violaine Huisman and Deborah Treisman

A prizewinning tour de force after its publication in France, The Book of Mother, Violaine Huisman’s debut novel, is now available to English readers in a stunning translation by Leslie Camhi (ed. Scribner). On November 7, we were joined by Huisman and New Yorker Fiction Editor Deborah Treisman as they discussed this masterful account of a young woman coming of age with a dazzling yet damaged mother who lived and loved in extremes.

Beautiful and charismatic, Catherine, a.k.a. “Maman,” smokes too much, drives too fast, laughs too hard, and loves too extravagantly. During a joyful and chaotic childhood in Paris, her daughter Violaine wouldn’t have it any other way. With spectacular ferocity of language, a streak of dark humor, and stunning emotional bravery, The Book of Mother is an exquisitely wrought story of a mother’s dizzying heights and devastating lows—and a daughter who must hold her memory close in order to let go.

You can purchase a copy of The Book of Mother here.