If you’ve never read an Adam Haslett novel, you are really missing out on some spectacular writing. He really digs down into the emotionality and sentimentality of his characters. The guy is a literary genius.

Peter is an immigration lawyer in New York City who puts his job above all else. On top of that, he has been estranged from his mother for decades. When he takes on an asylum case that brings out memories of some past traumas, he starts to realize that he must reunite with his mother if he is ever going to overcome those traumas.

With the beautiful prose, great characters and important storyline, this book is a must read. It digs into some relevant and emotional subjects such as homosexuality, trauma, immigration and family dynamics. It’s simply superb.

Thank you, NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the advanced reader copy of this 5-star book.

This was a surprisingly enjoyable read for me. I don’t usually read contemporary fiction and there are a few, and very brief, gay sexual encounters. But the writing is so good and the characters so well developed that I couldn’t put the book aside. It took me a few chapters to keep my characters and storylines separate but once I was in the book they became very clear. I read an ARC but there were no chapter titles, headings or numbers. I love how the author wove the theme of secrets and mother/son relationships through each of the stories in the book. I’ll be sure to pick up other novels written by this talented author who was new to me.

This is a coming of age story that is rare in that it follows the growth of not one but two characters who come into their own. Told in different timelines this story is narrated by Peter. As a teen he accepts the fact of his own sexuality when he falls in love with his mysterious first love Jared. His mother, Ann’s story is told in the third person. She must give up her identity and career when she realizes she is in love with another woman Clare.
In Haslett’s tale there is an underlying untold trauma that weaves its way throughout. Ann and Peter are estranged. Peter is a 40 year old gay immigration attorney living a sterile life. It is not until he takes on the case of Vasel Marku, an Albanian immigrant that something wakes within him. Ann has left the ministry and opened Viriditas Retreat with Clare. However their relationship is dissolving.
The book focuses on Peter and Ann and the violence and guilt of the past. There is a deep chasm between the two of unspoken guilt and hurt. Are new beginnings possible? Shouldn’t love supersede all? A very emotionally powerful book. Highly recommend.

Adam Haslett has done something remarkably special. He gives us a uniquely written fusion-platter of varied supporting and main characters — portraying them with equal importance.
Immigrants may experience separation from family, which can trigger intense, emotional and behavioral distress — fear of deportation— loneliness, sadness, confusion, language difficulties, violence, alienation, etc.: all true.
Yet….Adam Haslett explores very real life struggles of (both), immigrants and non-immigrants — with a vengeance.
—lawyers and clients, brothers and sisters, friends and lovers, mothers and sons —
—brokenness, estrangement, trauma, unsolved issues in our past are interwoven to explore a kinda of commonality with every type of person on the planet.
And….we get plenty of personal stories with of a handful of characters ….allowing us, the reader to ‘feel’ the emotional depth.

For about the first ten percent of this novel, we are getting familiar with the team of immigration lawyers, and clients seeking asylum.
And,
….I kid you not, we meet about twenty different characters, quickly. It could feel jarring or overwhelming….
[I took notes - pages full of them]….
but let me pass on a little advice:
….relax! It’s not necessary to memorize every character….just keep on reading….their stories come together effortlessly.

“Mother and Sons” explores powerful themes, powerfully!
….the affects of love, family relationships, grief, disconnections, identity, loss, the past and buried hurt, innocence, multiple truths, work stress, sexuality, trauma, estrangement…..
and the different ways surviving, moving on, and healing looks like.

A ‘few’’ characters you’ll meet: (remember it doesn’t have to be overwhelming; the story comes together powerfully).
….Peter Fischer, asylum immigration lawyer. He’s Gay.
….Phoebe, Peter’s boss of ten years.
….Liz, Peter’s sister.
….Sandra Moya, from Honduras, and her fourteen year old son, Felipe
….Fatima Saleem, from Pakistan
….A Cantonese couple
….A truck driver from Sierra Leone
….Vasel Marku- 21 year-old Albanian. Complicated story ….Vasel entered the country with a false passport. He missed deadlines, etc. Peter is trying to help….its stressful for both of them..
….Judge Manetti - THE JUDGE
….Monica … one of the lawyers who was granted asylum years ago Nicaragua when she was a teenager.
….A young Albanian man
….Carl…. The Crusader cofounder of their law firm.
….An eight year old girl, Ana from San Miguel
….Ann, Peter’s mother — who left her husband, Richard, to live with a woman named Clare. They run a women’s retreat in Vermont.
Peter and Ann’s estrangement relationship is associated with, Jared…from when Peter was fifteen years old.

A couple of excerpts:
“What you need to understand is, where we come from, family is the most important thing. Nothing matters more than this, nothing. Children, they keep living with their parents when they grow up. They have no choice, they can’t afford anything else, thirty years, forty years old. If you don’t have a family, you have nothing, you have nowhere to go”.
Vasel can’t go back to his family because there was a rumor that he kissed another boy at school. It was a lie.

“An eight year old girl, Ana Andino. Two years ago in her village of San Miguel, she saw her father shot to death on the street in front of her. She didn’t want to leave her grandmother and friends and schoolteacher, but her mother said they had to go north; their journey through Guatemala and Mexico; the border crossing where the men held their mother back, but took her into the desert; her detention in McAllen, her detention in Nashville, her transfer to New York. The Health of Human Services (HHS) placement into foster care. A seventy-five year old woman takes care of her and five other children”.

From reading Adam Haslett’s new novel, “Mothers and Sons”…. I got to experience how incredibly overwhelming the challenges are for immigration lawyers, the stress, the long hours, the emotional toll on their own own self-care.
And holy moly….their clients….
fear of being removed from the country, the uncertain day, the lack of support, the laws, policies, often changing, frustrating, lengthy complex processes……

Also…..the Parent, child, estrangement story we experience between Peter and his Mother, Ann …..
was — in part —
I admit ….
challenging for me to read.
As a parent who still lives with ‘mostly’ estrangement from our first born daughter…..it’s a grief my husband and I share.

Absolutely beautiful book!

Adam Haslett has been one of my favorite authors from the time I read his very first book. I wish he were more prolific but I can also understand that it takes time to craft these beautiful stories together because his stories are always quiet, deeply meaningful and beautifully crafted. And this one is no exception.

This is the story of Peter who works as a lawyer defending asylum seekers and is estranged from his mother for decades. His most recent case unlocks deeply buried trauma and memories of his own experience and pushes him to reconnect with his mother and face what he's been running away from his whole life.

This story is about how trauma can completely change the course of our lives, how we listen for what we want to hear and how each person is broken in their own way and how hard it is for all of us to be in this world caring for each other while trying to heal.

with gratitude to netgalley and Little, Brown and Company for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review

Peter is an immigration lawyer living in New York City who has a strained relationship with his mother, Ann. She runs a retreat centre with her partner, Clare, on a farm in Vermont. The story moves between the present day in which Peter is working on an immigration case for a young Albanian asylum seeker, Vasel, and the past when Peter is 15 and experiencing his first same sex relationship with a very attractive boy, Jared.

The story circles around Peter's difficulties relating to having a deeper relationship with his mother and with Jared in his past. Vasel's story is told alongside Peter's as a secondary story. The three threads of the story come together in a beautiful and deeply affecting last few chapters. I was blown away by the delicate and life-altering internal changes experienced by Peter at the end.

I did have some difficulty with the narrator's handling of Ann and Clare's storyline, feeling it stereotyped them somewhat, but I couldn't tell whether this was intentional or not on the part of the author.

Overall, this was a great read and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys a slow build of an internal journey to an insightful climax.

Thank you to NetGalley for the advanced e-copy.

Much like another book I recently read, the main characters allowed inappropriate self-blame to get in the way of their familial relationship and responsibilities. Communicating about the difficult things in life is, well, difficult, but often, not communicating about them can lead to assumptions and misunderstandings that can cause even more harm. It took too long for the characters to get on with resolving their issues. I was ready to be done with the book long before it was over.

A long, intricate and deftly woven meditation on heritage and shame, from a sensitive writer with a skillful technique. The novel, however, seemed to me excessively in length and unevenly paced, leaving its core event till a late stage of development, after which the elements seem to fall rather too neatly and swiftly into place. Prior to that the melancholy tone can become stifling. A capable piece of work but not exactly a cherishable one.

Patrick's life in New York City revolves primarily around his work as an immigration attorney. He is largely unflappable and devoted to his clients. Peter rarely speaks to his mother, Ann, who now runs a retreat center in rural Vermont that she started with two other women after leaving Peter's father decades before. Although Ann wishes she and Peter were closer, she cannot imagine any other life than the one she has built for herself in the second part of her life.

But then a new client affects Peter in a way no previous case has done, causing him to grapple with an incident from his high school days that he has sought to put in his past. As Peter becomes increasingly unraveled, he seeks out his mother and they both must confront their shared past that they never discussed even as it drove a wedge between them.

This is a well-written and highly engaging story, providing a nuanced and insightful exploration of the relationships between parents and their children, the relationship between work and purpose, and how formative experiences can shape people in ways they often seek, unsuccessfully, to ignore.

Highly recommended!

There is a jarring continuity error on page 1. . In the first paragraph of the novel, “the lawyers consult their phones.” In the second paragraph “No one’s allowed to use their phones.” I’d appreciate whoever is reading this passing it along to the copy editors. I imagine there are other errors like this— inevitable in this kind of book with so many moving parts. I’ll write a full review later. Haslett is a wonderful writer.

A 40 year old, workaholic, gay immigration attorney lives a solitary and lonely life in Manhattan, estranged from his mother who founded and runs a woman’s retreat center in rural Vermont. His world is changed when an immigration client compels him to confront a violent event in his past and the secret that he and his mother share. Haslett once again brings us exceptional prose and character development as he explores complex relationships, human frailties, love, sense of self and, of course, parent-child dynamics.

As the first legit rating and review of Haslett's brilliant new novel, it delights me to be able to give it an unequivocable rave. Many thanks to Netgalley, Little Brown and Company, and the author for providing an ARC eBook copy, six months before publication, in exchange for this honest and enthusiastic review.

It's been eight long years since Haslett's last novel, the equally enthralling Imagine Me Gone, which was my favorite book of 2016; I was oddly enough wondering just recently what had happened to him, when I became aware of this new one - which was certainly worth the wait. Haslett has only published three books prior to this and has two Pulitzer Prize and two NBA nominations for those - and suspect this will also garner major awards notice and perhaps finally get him the accolades and awards he so richly deserves.

The story is in essence three separate strands, told in alternating sections: Peter, the MC, is a 40-year-old gay lawyer specializing in immigration and deportation cases, defending undocumented aliens, usually the victims of violence in their native lands, from facing extradition, who narrates his story in first person. The other major titular character is his mother Ann, whose story is told in omniscient third person, from whom Peter has been estranged for some 25 years; she and her partner Clare run a women's retreat center in Vermont, which Peter's derisive and snarky sister Liz refers to as 'lesbian camp'. The third strand is flashbacks to when Peter was an inquisitive 15 year-old, first becoming aware of his same-sex attraction, and his relationship with Jared, a beautiful older boy, that results in a devastating and shocking act that colors his entire life and is responsible for his estrangement from Ann.

Although the book is tightly plotted and thematically cohesive, as with most literary fiction, it is thoroughly character driven - and as well as Peter and Ann, it explores several other mother/son combinations: Peter's Albanian client Vasel and his protective mother; his Honduran client Sandra, and her son Felipe; Liz and her adorable 5-year-old rascal, Charlie; Jared and his intriguingly beautiful mother Susan; and even Peter's father Richard's own troubles with his mother.

I don't want to get into more specifics on the plot for danger of spoilers, but let me just add that, as always, Haslett's prose is effortlessly and propulsively readable, without being overly pretentious or flowery. I am certain this will end up as one of my three top reads of 2024. And perhaps damning with faint praise, but in the right hands, this would make a terrific film (Meryl Streep, call your agent! she'd would be a shoo-in for playing Ann!)