My Mother Never Dies [Hardcover]

One cant help but submit to [its] poisonous charms.Le Figaro This singular talent really sings: rarely have we seen motherdaughter relationships with such cruelty, such bitterness, or such acuity. (Lire )

[My Mother Never Dies is] well-honed and distinguished by vivid, unflinching candor.Castillon''s stories depict the disasters wrought by the intensity of the mother-daughter bond, while still suggesting the possibility of a love that''s sublime in its fragility and imperfection. (Kirkus )

Punchy, brief takes on complicated mother-daughter relationships dominate French novelist Castillon''s tantalizing English-language debut. Sharp, perceptive and edgy, these stories take the reader to some profoundly uncomfortable places. (Publishers Weekly )

Nineteen stunning, disturbing short stories delve into the complex relationship between mothers and daughters. In My Mother Never Dies, the literary provocateur Claire Castillon dissects the darkest aspects of the relationship between mothers and daughters. A woman tries so hard to be friends with her daughter that she begins to revert to her own adolescence; another woman finds her mother engaged in an illicit affair with a man they both know too well; a daughter rattles off all the reasons why shes disgusted with her invalid mother but realizes through her haze of teenage hatred that she is losing the only person who tells her the truth. Stunning, shocking, unflinching, and ultimately tender, My Mother Never Dies forces us to look at the worst and best of mothers and daughters. Like the work of Miranda July and A.M.Homes, Castillon wont let us avert our gaze from the terrible and true any more than from the beautiful and true because it all reveals the depth of our need for each other.

CLAIRE CASTILLON is the author of five novels and two collections of short stories, many of which have been translated and published throughout the world. My Mother Never Dies is her English-language debut. She is thirty-three years old.

Alison Anderson is the author of two novels, Hidden Latitudes and Darwin’s Wink. For Europa Editions she has translated two novels by Sélim Nassib, I Loved You for Your Voice and The Palestinian Lover, and Muriel Barbery’s bestselling novel The Elegance of the Hedgehog. She lives near Lausanne, Switzerland.
 

I Said One When I met my husband, he promised wed live the good life. We both loved to travel and had, in fact, met in Iran while I was buying a carpet. One simple joke about flying carpets and my husband could later boast to his friends how he seduced me with his sense of humor. We were married at my parents placethey have an estate in the Touraineand then moved into a house with a garden. People said it looked like an English cottage. Drinking wine with dinner one evening I shared my greatest phobia with my husband: that a masked man would come into the bedroom through the French doors. My husband put me to bed, promising to have shutters installed, but, of course, the next morning it was all forgotten. I dont tend to worry much, by nature. In fact, men have always appreciated my placid temperament. You can take me anywhere, I adapt to the temperature and the population, I always fit in, find my stride. Im a real chameleon. Weve even lived abroad, going here and there for my husbands job, and, every time, Ive found my niche and enjoyed it. New acquaintances, new surroundings, new activities have never cramped my style. On the contrary, I have an optimistic nature, I know how to go for it, its my credo to make a success of my life. Even after we moved back to France we continued to travel all over the world together because my husband is allowed to take his spouse along on his business trips. I have neither a career nor a dog; I keep myself totally available for him. And, I dont know what your thoughts on the matter might be, but I have my own theories about what a man gets up to when hes alone on a business trip. More than four days on his own, and the wife gets cheated on. Oh, dont make such a face! Have you ever looked into it yourself? The only territory where Ive never been prepared to go along with him, and Im the first to admit itIm not being judgmental, but I do recognize the factis in his desire for a child. When he suggested having a baby, it was as if the sky had fallen on my head, I even laughed, I was so sure he must be joking. He didnt mention it again for a while, but it was brewing. Hed dawdle like a schoolgirl outside stores with baby carriages and make this silly grin whenever he saw some sweet little baby doll wiggling in her daddys arms. Survival instinct or not, I was afraid he might go somewhere else for what he wanted, so, after some negotiating, I agreed to become a mother. I warned him that I would only have one. He looked stunned, but that was the way it had to be, I was agreeing to it out of my love for him, and on the condition we have a daughter. Sooner or later Id probably grow attached to her, otherwise shed have to make do with distant affection. My husband was over the moon. I got pregnant very quickly; he treated me like a queen even before my stomach began to swell. I was completely spoiled and I even got a necklace. It was one of those, what do they call them, diamond rivires, I think, though the diamonds