Jessamine Chan's short stories have appeared in Tin House and Epoch. A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, she holds an MFA from Columbia University's School of the Arts and a BA from Brown University. Her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers' Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Jentel Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Anderson Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.
"The School for Good Mothers picks up the mantle of writers like
Margaret Atwood and Kazuo Ishiguro, with their skin-crawling themes
of surveillance, control, and technology; but it also stands on its
own as a remarkable, propulsive novel. At a moment when state
control over women's bodies (and autonomy) feels ever more
chilling, the book feels horrifyingly unbelievable and eerily
prescient all at once." --VOGUE
"A surreal, dazzling witty tale." --PEOPLE "This debut novel was so
captivating, thought-provoking and beautifully written, everything
I tried to pick up next paled in comparison...It was all I wanted
to talk about, think about and read." --THE TODAY SHOW "Intense,
unputdownable debut that will doubtless spark conversation about
what makes a good or bad mother." --OPRAH.COM "It sounds dark and
weird, and it is kind of dark and weird, but I found it really,
really absorbing." --Linda Holmes, NPR "It's about Big Things like
state violence, family separation, so-called "perfect parenting,"
and the unrealistic demands of motherhood, with a little sci-fi
fun!" --NYLON
"An enthralling dystopian drama that makes complex points about
parenting with depth and feeling." --KIRKUS REVIEWS
"Chan's stunning debut could not be timelier, leaving no stone
unturned in its allusion to the real-life legal assaults
constraining women today. Part-dystopian, part-prescient,
impossible to put down and impossible to forget." --LIBRARY
JOURNAL
"Enthralling....Woven seamlessly throughout are societal
assumptions and stereotypes about mothers, especially mothers of
color, and their consequences. Chan's imaginative flourishes render
the mothers' vulnerability to social pressures and governmental
whims nightmarish and palpable. It's a powerful story, made more so
by its empathetic and complicated heroine." --PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
"Gutting and terrifying. Vivid and exquisite. In The School for
Good Mothers, you'll find not only your favorite novel of the year,
but also a new cultural touchstone, a reference point for the
everyday horrors all parents experience and take for granted. This
book is sharp, shocking, anxiety-provoking, superb. It is exactly
what you want, and need, to read." --JULIA PHILLIPS, author of
Disappearing Earth "A terrifying novel about mass surveillance,
loneliness, and the impossible measurements of motherhood--The
School for Good Mothers is a timely and remarkable debut." --CARMEN
MARIA MACHADO, author of In the Dream House "The School for Good
Mothers is an astonishing novel. Heartbreaking and daring,
propulsive and wise. In the way that The Handmaid's Tale made us
fear for women's bodies, The School for Good Mothers makes us fear
for women's souls. It's hard to distill all the love and longing
this book contains, and how electrifying it is to be immersed in
Chan's world. So let me just say, I read with my heart in my throat
and I held my kids tight." --DIANE COOK, author of The New
Wilderness
"If good writing, gripping plot and provocative questions about the
world we live in are your priorities, then The School for Good
Mothers needs to be on your reading list, whether or not you are a
parent, or someday want to be." --BOOKPAGE
"In this debut novel about the launch of a government program meant
to correct "bad" mothering, Chan collects the judgments and
pressures that society places on women who deign to be multifaceted
and translates them into a propulsive, perceptive story."
--ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY
"Insightful." --BUSTLE "This scarily prescient novel that's
reminiscent of Orwell and Vonnegut explores the depths of parents'
love, how strictly we judge mothers and each other and the
terrifying potential of government overreach." --GOOD HOUSEKEEPING
"An incisive thriller on modern-day parenting." --HEY ALMA
"Jessamine Chan captures, in heartbreaking tones, the exacting
price women pay in a patriarchal society that despises them, that
reduces their worth to their viability for procreation and capacity
for mothering. The School for Good Mothers is not so much a warning
for some possible dystopian nightmare as much as it is an alarm
announcing that the nightmare is here. The book is, thus, a weeping
testimony, a haunting song, and a piercing rebuke of both the
misogynist social order and the traps it lays for women, girls, and
femmes. Good Mothers deserves an honored place next to the works of
Margaret Atwood and Octavia Butler." --ROBERT JONES, JR., author of
The Prophets and creator of Son of Baldwin
"Jessamine Chan's infuriatingly timely debut novel, The School for
Good Mothers, takes this widely accepted armchair quarterbacking of
motherhood and ratchets it up to the level of a surveillance state
-- one that may read more like a preview than a dystopia, depending
on your faith in the future of Roe v. Wade...chilling...clever."
--THE NEW YORK TIMES REVIEW
"Sinister and surreal... Stark social commentary and questions of
authority and attachment play out in Frida's desperate gambit to
atone for her one very bad day." --BOOKLIST
"This book is like nothing I've read before--a tightly plotted,
deeply moving novel that also offers profound insights into the
state of contemporary motherhood within a country that offers very
little in the way of societal support for parents. I found myself
moved to tears by its conclusion. The School for Good Mothers is
haunting and unforgettable, and I'm in awe of Jessamine Chan's
mind." --LIZ MOORE, author of Long Bright River
"This taut, explosive novel is all the more terrifying because it
edges so close to reality. With the story of one woman struggling
to get her daughter back, Jessamine Chan spotlights the punishing
scrutiny and judgment aimed at mothers everywhere--especially those
who aren't wealthy or white. Frida's predicament embodies the
fraught question so many women are taught to ask: Am I good
enough?" --LENI ZUMAS, author of Red Clocks
 |
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
