The Real Mother: A Novel

Sara Elliott returns to Chicago to care for her three younger siblings—ten-year-old Doug and teenagers Carrie and Abby—after abandoning her own plans. She finds work and settles into the family home. Three years after leaving, her older brother Mack unexpectedly reappears at age twenty. Despite having promised to help Sara with the children and household, he shows little concern about his absence. Mack's behavior is unpredictable, shifting between kindness and cruelty, affection and hostility, which keeps the family in constant tension. His expensive gifts, storytelling, and charismatic presence win over the children, sometimes causing them to side with him against Sara. When Sara meets Reuben Lister, a client from New York, her circumstances begin to shift. As she helps him find and furnish a house and explore the city, they develop an unexpected closeness. Through their relationship, both discover new ways of addressing conflicts they have previously faced alone. Together, Sara and Reuben explore fundamental questions about motherhood, parenthood, and what constitutes a family.