Critics' Opinion:
Readers' rating:
Published Apr 2019
352 pages
Genre: Thrillers
Publication Information
A riveting page-turner that lets us inside the secret world of therapist and patient, where boundaries get crossed, and events spiral out of control...
Ruth Hartland is a psychotherapist with years of experience. But professional skill is no guard against private grief. The mother of grown twins, she is haunted by the fact that her beautiful, difficult, fragile son Tom, a boy who never "fit in," disappeared a year and a half earlier. She cannot give up hope of finding him, but feels she is living a kind of half-life, waiting for him to return.
Enter a new patient, Dan--unstable and traumatized--who looks exactly like her missing son. She is determined to help him, but soon, her own complicated feelings, about how she has failed her own boy, cloud her professional judgement. And before long, the unthinkable becomes a shattering reality....
An utterly compelling drama with a timebomb at its core, A Good Enough Mother is a brilliant, beautiful story of mothering, and how to let go of the ones we love when we must.
"Starred Review. [An] exceptional debut... Thomas melds astute psychological insight with powerful storytelling in this moving thriller." - Publishers Weekly
"A compelling, ingenious novel about grief, love, the healing process, and what it means to mother... Perfect for fans of psychological fiction, in particular Alex Michaelides The Silent Patient." - Booklist
"A suspenseful and emotionally stirring debut." - Kirkus Reviews
"A Good Enough Mother is not just everything a great thriller should be—haunting, emotional, charged with depth and power—it is also a gorgeous and devastating examination of motherhood that cuts right to the heart." - Aimee Molloy, New York Times bestselling author of The Perfect Mother
"Taut, absorbing and psychologically astute, in A Good Enough Mother Bev Thomas combines all the tension of a thriller with the emotional resonance of a powerful family drama." - Paula Hawkins, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Girl on the Train
"This powerful story of love, loss--and ultimately, healing--will resonate with anyone who has ever loved a child." - Kim Edwards, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Memory Keeper's Daughter
"The suspense is raw and enthralling, with a strong emotional ache at its center." - Hilma Wolitzer, author of An Available Man
"Both a riveting account of what goes on behind the scenes at your therapist's office and a dark meditation on motherhood, marriage and grief. I couldn't put it down." - Lisa Gabriele, author of The Winters
"Packs an emotional punch and is a gripping, original read. It is a novel full of loss and longing and the complexities of human relationships. - Kate Hamer, author of The Girl in the Red Coat
"A beautiful, compelling book about the hopes and terrors of motherhood. You'll stay up reading way too late, desperate to find out what happens next ... and even when you manage to put the book down, Ruth's story will haunt you." - Gin Phillips, author of Fierce Kingdom
This information about A Good Enough Mother 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.
Bev Thomas was a clinical psychologist in the National Health Service for many years. She currently works as an organizational consultant in mental health and other services. She lives in London with her family.
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