Award-winning author Irina Reyn explores what it means to be a mother in a world where you can't be with your child
Nadia's daily life in south Brooklyn is filled with small indignities: as a senior home attendant, she is always in danger of being fired; as a part-time nanny, she is forced to navigate the demands of her spoiled charge and the preschooler's insecure mother; and as a ethnic Russian, she finds herself feuding with western Ukrainian immigrants who think she is a traitor.
The war back home is always at the forefront of her reality. On television, Vladimir Putin speaks of the "reunification" of Crimea and Russia, the Ukrainian president makes unconvincing promises about a united Ukraine, while American politicians are divided over the fear of immigration. Nadia internalizes notions of "union" all around her, but the one reunion she has been waiting six years for - with her beloved daughter - is being eternally delayed by the Department of Homeland Security. When Nadia finds out that her daughter has lost access to the medicine she needs to survive, she takes matters into her own hands.
Mother Country is Irina Reyn's most emotionally complex, urgent novel yet. It is a story of mothers and daughters and, above all else, resilience.
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“This audiobook unfolds so quietly, so gently that its impact lingers long after it ends…Gati’s voice is warmly appealing, and her investment in the story, superb. She creates colorful characters with an energy that pulls the listener in. What especially shines is her skill with accents and vocal shifts. Gati gives all the characters in this audiobook distinctive voices, accents, and energy. Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award.”
— AudioFile
“Beautifully envisioned, morally urgent…A book of uncommon power and purpose.”
— Anthony Marra, New York Times bestselling author[Kathleen Gati's] voice is warmly appealing, and her investment in the story, superb. She creates colorful characters with an energy that pulls the listener in. What especially shines is her skill with accents and vocal shifts. Gati gives all the characters in this audiobook distinctive voices, accents, and energy.
— AudioFile Magazine“A modern portrait of America through the lens of the women it fails the most.”
— Marie ClaireBe the first to write a review about this audiobook!
Irina Reyn is an author of What Happened to Anna K, Living on the Edge of the World, The Imperial Wife. She teaches fiction writing at the University of Pittsburgh and has reviewed books for Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle, Publishers Weekly, Minneapolis Star-Tribune, and other publications. She was formerly the books editor for the online magazine Killing the Buddha.
Kathleen Gati is an award-winning actress who has starred in a number of Hungarian television series and films.