Mamele

By: Gemma Reeves

Length: 7 hrs and 40 mins

Publisher's summary

MAMELE is a bold and beautiful literary novel about the shape of one woman’s life after a brutal estrangement from her mother.

Gemma Reeves writes with extraordinary deftness and care of the difficult love between mothers and daughters, loneliness and aching desire, cultural inheritance and separation.

Edie lives quietly in a crumbling country house in Broadstairs with her partner Joanna. They have spent two decades together since the death of Harry, the third member of their marriage. It’s a bohemian existence, but a happy one – and yet conversations about the mother who abandoned her have recently awoken in Edie feelings she long thought buried.

Edie reflects on her childhood as part of the post-war Jewish Diaspora in Maida Vale, and the heady, hedonistic years of 1960s London when she experienced her sexual awakening. Now approaching fifty, she wonders if there’s still time to become the woman she once yearned to be. The story of Edie’s life unfolds as a biting portrait of her mother emerges.

A searing, sexy and powerful novel, MAMELE asks questions about the most basic of all desires – to be loved – and shows how complex and bewildering the experience of estrangement can be. But ultimately this is a novel about hope, about survival, and about how it is never too late to begin again.

©2024 Gemma Reeves (P)2024 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic reviews

Praise for Mamele

‘Mamele won my heart. A complex story about motherhood, inheritance and the things we're willing to forsake in the name of desire. Reeves' prose is muscular and moving – a triumph.’ AMY TWIGG, author of Spoilt Creatures

‘A haunting novel, deeply felt and melodically composed, which asks the question: can we escape the fate our families assign us? Overwhelming and seductive.’ LUCIE ELVEN, author of The Weak Spot

‘One of the best books I’ve read in a while – one of those rare, perfect novels where I found myself hurrying back to it but also dreading its end. The characters are alive, gleaming with truth and nuance. The prose is deft, moving, full of surprise. A real triumph; it deserves to soar.’ ELIZABETH MACNEAL, author of The Doll Factory

‘I absolutely adored the sensual journey Mamele took me on. Gemma’s prose is immersive. It is such a personal story, yet, it feels like a journey of discovery – as Edie tells us her story, she is discovering the truth of it for the first time. Mamele is fresh and daring.’ KATE SAWYER, author of The Stranding

'There’s a wonderful rhythm to Gemma Reeves’ writing, which is thoughtful and poised and pulled me along from the first page to the last. I found Mamele to be a mesmerising and deeply felt novel about mothers and daughters, inheritance, art, intimacy and desire. I’ll be thinking about it for some time' CHLOE ASHBY, author of Wet Paint and Second Self