Shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize for Fiction 2006.
The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family – the family featured in St. Aubyn’s Melrose series that began with Never Mind – 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 . . .
Never Mind (the first Melrose)
Bad News (Melrose 2)
Some Hope (Melrose 3)
Mother's Milk (Melrose 4)
At Last (the last Melrose)
| Primary Genre | Modern and Contemporary Fiction |
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