'The best kind of book: the one you didn't know you were craving until it appeared ...
self-interrogative intricately perceptive. I absolutely inhaled it' JIA TOLENTINO 'A very
richly interesting exploration of a complex subject. Begoña Gómez Urzaiz tells the stories with
such intelligence and wit and generosity' TESSA HADLEY 'Fascinating ... I suspect there are
many many other mothers who are going to inhale The Abandoners ' OBSERVER When it comes to
children: a man leaves a woman abandons Journalist Begoña Gómez Urzaiz is fascinated by women
who left their children behind to pursue their artistic lives. Women like Ingrid Bergman
Muriel Spark Doris Lessing and Joni Mitchell. This book captures those extraordinary stories
along with the realities of women who have no choice but to separate from their families and
the everyday guilt of mothers who dream quietly of freedom. This is a book about motherhood
selfhood ambition and creativity. Above all it captures what our judgement of those women who
'abandon' tells us about our judgement of all women. 'The best book I've read on the
implications of motherhood and its opposites after Sheila Heti's Motherhood ' CLAUDIA
DURASTANTI
