A Mother and Daughter Discover Themselves, Each Other, and the World
by Claire & Mia Fontaine
Readers' rating:
Published Jul 2012
288 pages
Genre: Travel & Adventure
Publication Information
In their bestselling memoir, Come Back, readers were moved and inspired by the story of Mia Fontaine's harrowing drug addiction and her mother, Claire's, desperate and ultimately successful attempts to save her. Now, it is a decade later, and Claire and Mia, each facing a defining moment in their lives, are determined to transform themselves and their relationship again.
At fifty-one, Claire wants to shed her identity as her daughter's savior. Mia, twenty-five, needs to grow beyond her role as recovery's poster child and learn to navigate the world. To accomplish their goals, the pair embarks on a six-month, around-the-world adventure, hoping the trip with help them evolve as women, remember to live intentionally, and bring them together as friends. An amazing journey awaits: a sixteen-city twelve-country tour that will include mishaps, mayhem, laughter, and unexpected joys, from a passport-eating elephant to a calamitous camel ride around the pyramids.
As they examine the mother/daughter relationship in other cultures, Mia comes to know her mother as Claire has always known Mia - as all mothers know their daughters: better than anyone else, and often better than themselves. At the end of the journey, each returns with a deepened sense of who they are and where they want to go - and both joyously embrace the profound friendship they have discovered and the abiding love they share.
Told in alternating voices, Have Mother, Will Travel is a moving testament to the amazing power of the mother-daughter relationship and shows us the possibilities available in our own lives.
Reading Guide
"Have Mother, Will Travel" is filled with what I would have given anything to experience and treasure with my own mother - the inner workings of our hearts and thoughts. I love these women!" - Leah Komaiko, author of Am I Old Yet?
"A beautiful, funny, and oh-so-representative peek into how complicated - and wonderful - a mother-daughter relationship can be… I could feel, as a mother and a daughter, every struggle and bump in the road… the love between a mother and daughter, while not always sunshine and daisies, will never end." - Ree Drummond, author of The Pioneer Woman Cooks
"Finally, a book that celebrates the complexities of the mother-daughter bond with humor and depth. Both authors come to terms with who they are as women - together and apart - as they traverse twenty countries. Their relationship is an inspiration; you'll want to travel every step of the journey with them." - Maureen Murdock, author of The Heroine's Journey and Unreliable Truth
"Nobody writes with as much honesty, bravery, and humor as Claire and Mia Fontaine when it comes to the dynamic of the complex, baffling, nurturing, infuriating, comforting labyrinth known as the mother/daughter relationship. No matter how far we travel or what we do, we will always be one." - Tracey Jackson, author of Between a Rock and a Hot Place: Why Fifty Is Not the New Thirty
"An extremely insightful and inspiring look at how we relate, with our loved ones, with ourselves, and the world… Their courage in examining themselves, and their relationship, reminds us how important it is to stay mindful and proactive in all of our relationships, especially with our family." - Janice Croze, Founder of 5minutesformom.com
"As a mother of young daughters, I finished this book with such anticipation for the future, inspired by the relationship that Claire and Mia have formed through challenges and triumphs… I found myself falling deeper in love with the soul–transforming journey of both loving a mother and raising a child." - Kelle Hampton, author of Bloom: Finding Beauty in the Unexpected
This information about Have Mother, Will Travel was first featured
in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.
Any "Author Information" displayed below reflects the author's biography at the time this particular book was published.
Together, Claire and Mia Fontaine have also penned the memoir Come Back: A Mother and Daughter's Journey Through Hell and Back. Visit them online at www.facebook.com/HaveMotherWillTravel.
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