Editions

Mother Island

Mother Island

This is the story of two women, Nula and Maggie, joined by old family history and love for the same little boy.

Nula, struggling with her new baby and feeling alone in her marriage, employs her cousin Maggie as a nanny when she returns to work. But it's not long before Nula finds herself theatened by Maggie's close bond with her son, Samuel.

Nula's outwardly perfect house crackles with unspoken jealousies and rivalry until Maggie's intense love for Samuel tips into obsession and she decides her only option is to abduct the child. As Maggie makes her desperate bid for safety, the women's shared past of trauma and loss comes to the fore once more.

WINNER OF THE JERWOOD FICTION UNCOVERED PRIZE 2015.

Reviews

  • Roberts writes fantastically well about motherhood and the magical, other-worldly atmosphere of Anglesey

    The Times

  • More than just a piece of mummy lit, it's particularly good on the multiple tiny stories of hurt and resentments that can make up a family history.

    Metro

  • There's little more engrossing than a top-notch psychological thriller. Bethan Roberts's latest novel doesn't disappoint – it's satisfyingly creepy and stimulates that delicious paradox: goose-pimples in summer.

    The Independent

  • A sharp examination of what it means to be a mother...What makes Mother Island stand out from the crowd, though, is the compassion the author shows for her central characters...A thoroughly cracking read

    Big Issue

  • Cleverly constructed… Skilful unravelling of events… Uncomfortable and gripping in equal measures

    Juanita Coulson, Lady

More from this Author

About the Author

Bethan Roberts

Bethan Roberts was born in Oxford and grew up in nearby Abingdon. Her first novel The Pools won a Jerwood/Arvon Young Writers' Award. Her second novel The Good Plain Cook, published in 2008, was serialized on BBC Radio 4's Book at Bedtime and was chosen as one of Time Out's books of the year. Her third novel, My Policeman, was picked as the 'City Reads' book for Brighton. Her most recent novel is Mother Island, winner of a Jerwood/Fiction Uncovered Prize 2015. Bethan lives in Brighton with her family. www.bethanrobertswriter.com

Bethan Roberts

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