num_pages: 235
description: Writing with the scathing wit and bright perceptiveness for which he has become known, celebrated English author Edward St. Aubyn creates a complex family portrait that examines the shifting allegiances between mothers, sons, and husbands. The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family -- the family featured in St. Aubyn’s widely praised trilogy, Some Hope -- starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and convincing account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favor of his sons; to Mary, who’s consumed by her children and overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother. All the while, St. Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once illustrious family -- whose last vestige of wealth, an old house in the south of France -- is about to be donated by Patrick’s mother to a New Age foundation. An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery, and assisted suicide, Mother’s Milk showcases St. Aubyn’s luminous and acidic prose -- and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy.
language: English
title: Mother's Milk
titlecomplete: Mother's Milk (Patrick Melrose #4)
genres: Literature, Audiobook, Classics, Literary Fiction, Novels, 21st Century, Family, Fiction, Contemporary, British Literature
ratings_count: 5966
series:  خماسية باتريك ميلروز, Patrick Melrose
awards: awardedAt: 1136102400000
name: Booker Prize, awardedAt: 1167638400000
name: Prix Femina
category: Étranger
publisher: Grove Press, Open City Books