Jane Caro is a Walkley award-winning columnist, social commentator and feminist, best known as one of the founding members of the ‘Destroy the Joint’ movement. The Mother is her first novel for adults and she successfully combines her passion for women’s rights with a fantastic page-turning story.
Jane Caro
Miriam Duffy is a successful North Shore real estate agent whose daughter, Ally, marries the man of her dreams, Nick. Ally and Nick move out to Gunnedah for him to take up a role as a vet in the country town. Miriam and the rest of the family notice small issues regarding difficulties in being able to talk to Ally and notice a big change in her career goals but Miriam reassures herself that it’s just the adjustment of a new relationship with her daughter being focused on her new wonderful life.
It soon becomes apparent that all is not as it seems and despite Ally’s protests that everything is fine, Miriam senses it’s not. As the issue explodes, Miriam and Ally are then faced with trying to get help and protection from a system which is only just starting to recognise coercive control but is not equipped to deal with it. As the system fails them again and again, Miriam becomes desperate and starts to consider taking an action she never thought she would. How far will she go to protect her family?
Caro deftly explores the realities of the impact of coercive control and domestic violence on both the victims and the extended family. How do you know when there’s an issue, especially when the victim denies there’s a problem? Is it just a difference in what someone wants from a relationship compared to what you’d accept? Does this make it wrong or a problem? How do you even ask the question?
The tension is built as Caro weaves references to recent devastating crimes that are burned in our psyche and uses the narrative to take us ‘behind the scenes’ of what leads up to these catastrophic events.
It is not often that an author can be politically topical without sacrificing a strong plot and well-drawn characters but Caro achieves this brilliantly. While it’s a page-turning thriller, it’s also an important exploration of a social tragedy we are exposed to all too often.
—The Mother by Jane Caro (Allen & Unwin) is out now.
The Mother
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Recently widowed, Miriam Duffy is a respectable North Shore real estate agent and devoted mother and grandmother. She was thrilled when her younger daughter Ally married her true love, but as time goes by Miriam wonders whether all is well with Ally, as she moves to the country and gradually withdraws, finding excuses every time Miriam offers to visit. Their relationship has always had its ups and downs, and Miriam tries to give her daughter the distance she so clearly wants. But is all as it seems?...
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