Born and raised in Southern California, Brit Bennett graduated from Stanford University and later earned her MFA in fiction at the University of Michigan, where she won a Hopwood Award in Graduate Short Fiction as well as the 2014 Hurston/Wright Award for College Writers. Her work is featured in The New Yorker, The New York Times Magazine, The Paris Review, and Jezebel. She is one of the National Book Foundation's 2016 5 Under 35 honorees.
A New York Times bestseller, a finalist for the NBCC John Leonard
First Novel Prize, a finalist for the PEN/Robert W. Bingham
Prize for Debut Fiction, a finalist for the New York Public
Library Young Lions Award, and named a Best Book of 2016 by NPR,
Entertainment Weekly, Vogue, and others.
"Ferociously moving. . .a lush book, a book of so many secrets,
betrayal. . .Despite Bennett’s thrumming plot, despite the snap of
her pacing, it’s the always deepening complexity of her characters
that provides the book’s urgency. . . I found myself reading not to
find out what happens to the characters, but to find out who they
are." –The New York Times Book Review
“Ms. Bennett allows her characters to follow their worst impulses,
and she handles provocative issues with intelligence, empathy and
dark humor. Her risk-taking pays off.” –The New York Times
"[A] compelling debut." –The New Yorker
"Delivers lines that you'll want to savor and read out loud —
because it's a story about secrets and betrayals, and part of the
pleasure is your own sighs and gasps. It's both intimate and epic
in scope. . .It hums along at a brisk, emotional pace — the kind of
story that feels like it's moving fast, but really, it's moving
deep." –NPR
"[Bennett’s] storytelling does what all truly good fiction
does: it draws you in and, on a universal level, connects with
you and makes you think. . .The Mothers is a thought-provoking
novel that will resonate long after it is read.” –USA Today
"A fantastic debut novel. . .Some novels take place as you read
them, while others grow more complicated as you think back on them.
Bennett has written that rare combination: a book that feels alive
on the page and rich for later consideration. . .Bennett is a
writer to watch." –The Washington Post
"One of the most exciting debuts of the fall." –LA Times
"Luminous. . .engrossing and poignant, this is one not to
miss." –People
"[A] striking debut. . .America needs more books like The Mothers,
which quietly, but critically, deepens our appreciation of the
black experience, and expands our collective understanding of what
it means now to be growing up and grasping for direction and
affection." –O Magazine
"With echoes of James Baldwin’s Go Tell It on the
Mountain, The Mothers is not your typical coming-of-age
novel: It begins with Nadia’s abortion, an experience often absent
from our culture’s stories, and goes on to look at how women step
in to nurture – and sometimes betray – one
another." –Vogue
"Brit Bennett comes charging out of Oceanside, California, with her
stunning debut, The Mothers, a refreshingly fast-paced story
of young love, race, and religious hypocrisy." –Vanity
Fair
"Bennett’s hypnotic writing hooks you from the very beginning and
never lets you go in this spine-tingling study of
destiny." –Essence
"The Mothers isn’t about the consequences of decisions, but the
repercussions of keeping secrets. . .funny, generous, and brightly
written." –GQ
"The Mothers is a beautifully written, sad and lingering book – an
impressive debut for such a young writer." –The
Guardian
"A magical and startlingly realistic account of how powerfully our
pasts can haunt us into adulthood—no matter how far we try to run
from home." –Harper’s Bazaar
"Gripping. . .the twenty-first century answer to Toni Morrison’s
Sula. . .displays the same complexity in its portrayal of a pair of
girlfriends as they grow together, and then apart, in a tight-knit
African American community." –Elle
"As much as The Mothers is steeped in black culture, it’s also
pointedly, poignantly universal in its depiction of young love and
friendship and hard choices. Maybe that qualifies as revolutionary,
or maybe it’s just a really good novel, one that makes all the mess
and magic of being young feel both new and familiar in the best
kind of way." –Entertainment Weekly
"Stunning… this heartbreaking coming of age tale takes a brutally
honest look at how the decisions of our past can haunt us well into
adulthood, no matter how far we try to distance ourselves." – Real
Simple
"As her flawed, lovable characters make decisions they regret and
deal with the consequences, Bennett unravels their tangled lives
with a devastating elegance." –The Houston Chronicle
“[An] extraordinary novel, which mines human relationships so
deeply and with such empathy… powerful.” –The Boston Globe
"A bracing, heartfelt debut about family, motherhood and
friendship, grief and healing and how all of these elements and our
own shaky decisions constantly reshape our lives." –The Miami
Herald
"Shows remarkable confidence, flair and wisdom." –Seattle Times
“Don’t keep this beautifully written coming-of-age story to
yourself.” —Newsday
“Bennett’s evocation of the way her characters are haunted by their
families’ pasts, her depiction of unbridled, damaging passion, and
her masterful orchestration of different voices are techniques
reminiscent of the great Toni Morrison.” –Dallas Morning News
"What [Bennett] has done is fulfill the both simple and impossibly
difficult mandate of any storyteller: to create a world her readers
believe in and care about and draw meaning from…Extraordinary…You
should be reading it." –Brooklyn Magazine
"The book tells its biggest secret right away. But what happens
after is more interesting. Think: the small-town drama of
"Friday Night Lights" and the 'what ifs' of "Sliding
Doors."–The Skimm
"Amid roiling arguments about privilege, appropriation, and race,
the 26-year-old writer — author of essays on all of the above — has
written a first novel exactly for its time." –Vulture
"A smart, insightful story about the unique ways in which women
need one another, the ways only women are capable of hurting each
other, and how a decision you make when you're young can ripple
like a bullet through the rest of your life — whether you regret
it, or not." –Refinery29
"The sad beauty of. . .The Mothers [is that] the characters’
pasts and deeper desires may be obfuscated by time. . . The
Mothers brims with psychological insight and thoughtful
commentary on the pain of loss and what motivates us to take
actions maligned with our beliefs." –Huffington Post
"Brit Bennett is so bracingly talented on the page. . . [The
Mothers is] astute and absorbing and urgent." –Jezebel
“A masterwork of modern fiction.” –Fusion
“Gorgeous.” –PopSugar
"Bennett's masterful first novel takes the reader on a
multidimensional exploration of the things we desire and the things
we settle for, what cements loyalties and what justifies
betrayal." –Blavity
"Brilliant. . .poignant, yet lovely. . .The Mothers is one of those
novels you truly don’t want to put down." –LitHub
“Bennett illuminates [her characters’] psychologies with the same
delicate sense of economy, probing for the ways that their
experiences produce complex emotional states only a fraction of
which are known to one another — or even to themselves.” – The
Millions
"Extraordinary. . .Bennett broke my heart with this novel, with her
investigation of friendship, secrets, love, choice and
forgiveness." –Electric Literature
"The Mothers is a quiet, beautiful text. . .As a reader, it is easy
to trust where Bennett is taking you. Surrender is necessary, but
with someone who can craft stories as skillfully as she can, it
isn’t painful." –The Rumpus
"Brit Bennett is the real thing. The Mothers is a stellar
novel — moving, thoughtful. Stunning. I couldn’t put it down.
I’m so excited to have this brilliant new voice in the world."
–Jacqueline Woodson, National Book Award-winning author
of Brown Girl Dreaming and Another
Brooklyn
"Brit Bennett’s debut novel The Mothers has stayed with me since I
first read it, the words and the intimacy of the prose seeping into
my pores… There is a real tenderness to how Bennett tells this
story and to how she writes these characters who are so richly
fleshed out, so unbearably human." –Roxane Gay, author of Bad
Feminist and An Untamed State
"What haunted me the most about this novel was the way it
made a presence out of absence. It gave nothingness teeth and
weaponized shadows. I thought I was escaping the current political
climate, but I wasn’t. Part of what makes The Mothers a stunning
novel is its exploration of kinship and primary bonds. Our
relationship to country is as fraught as our relationship to
kin." –Carrie Brownstein, author of Hunger Makes Me a Modern
Girl
"Brit Bennett's masterful debut is brimming with unforgettable
scenes and the sort of keenly-observed, precise language that makes
you look at your own relationships anew. Told with the wisdom of a
seasoned, compassionate storyteller, The Mothers is
a novel about community, friendship, grief and growth. The two
women at the center of this novel are characters you will find
yourself thinking about long after you've turned the last page--
they pull you in close and never let you go. Bennett is a brilliant
and much-needed new voice in literature." –Angela Flournoy, author
of National Book Award-finalist The Turner House
"Brit Bennett’s The Mothers is a brilliant exploration of
friendship, desire, inheritance, the love we seek, and the love we
settle for. It is the kind of book that from its first page seduces
you into knowing that the heartbreak coming will be worth it."
–Danielle Evans, author of Before You Suffocate Your Own Fool
Self
"Brit Bennett’s The Mothers is an engaging and assured
debut novel of depth, and introspective power. It succeeds as a
brilliant study of a modern black woman, and as a lyrical and
majestic portrait of her place in society." –Chigozie Obioma,
author of The Fishermen
"Wonderful – warm and tender and necessary." –Yaa Gyasi, author
of Homegoing
"Conveys the complexities and challenges of young love with
refreshing honesty and beautiful sentences. I cared about
Brit Bennett's characters, and the choices they made, and
couldn’t stop reading this remarkable debut." –Vendela Vida,
author of The Diver’s Clothes Lie Empty
"How do I start to describe The Mothers? Visceral? Riveting?
Heart-wrenching? In the end this novel is all three and then some…
Each line that Bennett produces cracks open with more intensity in
order to ask over and over again: What if? The past and the present
converge with each blossoming subplot until you begin to wonder
what "mistakes" you've made in the past that changed your future,
and whether or not you will have to grapple with them. The Mothers
is a rollercoaster ride that picks up very quickly even while
maintaining its complexity as it moves through the interwoven
journeys of Brit Bennett's unforgettable characters." –Morgan
Jerkins, Book of the Month
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