A mother and son estranged but yearning for reunion reckon at last with the secret that has
kept them apart for decades in this highly anticipated novel by one of the most talented
American writers of his generation At forty Peter an asylum lawyer in New York City is
overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of immigrants only to
return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups with a man who wants more than Peter can
give. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness the event that he
has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him. Ann his mother who runs a women's retreat
centre she founded after leaving his father is wounded by the estrangement from Peter but
cherishes the world she has built. She long ago banished from her mind the decision that
divided her from her son. But as Peter's case plunges him further into the fraught memory of
his first love and the night of violence that changed his life forever he and his mother must
confront the secret that tore them apart. With unsurpassed emotional depth Mothers and Sons
reveals all that is lost by looking away from the past and the love that might be restored by
facing it. In his spellbinding new novel Adam Haslett demonstrates yet again his mastery of "a
rich assortment of literary gifts" ( New York Times ). 'Haslett has a great gift for
capturing the strikingly different inner worlds of his characters and rendering them in
beautiful prose' Guardian
