The Mother Act

A Novel

By: Heidi Reimer

Narrated by: Beth Hicks, Lisa Flanagan

Set against the sparkling backdrop of the theater world, this propulsive debut follows the relationship between an actress who refuses to abandon her career and the daughter she chooses to abandon instead.

Sadie Jones, a larger-than-life actress and controversial feminist, never wanted to be a mother. No one feels this more deeply than Jude, the daughter Sadie left behind. While Jude spent her childhood touring with her father’s Shakespearian theater company, desperate for validation from the mother she barely knew, Sadie catapulted to fame on the wings of The Mother Act—a scathing one-woman show about motherhood.

Two decades later, Jude is a talented actress in her own right, and her fraught relationship with Sadie has come to a scandalous head. On a December evening in New York City, at the packed premiere of Sadie’s latest play, the two come face-to-face and the intertwined stories of their lives unfold—colorfully and dramatically. What emerges is a picture of two very different women navigating the complicated worlds of career, love, and family, all while grappling with the essential question: can they ever really understand each other?

Compelling, insightful, and cleverly conveyed as a play in six acts, The Mother Act is a stylish work that looks at what it means to be a devoted mother and a devoted artist—and whether it is possible to be both.

©2024 Heidi Reimer (P)2024 Penguin Audio

Critic reviews

“Wholly engrossing, beautifully crafted, and uncanny in its depiction of family intrigue and the life of the artist, this is a rare treasure of a book about both motherhood and daughterhood. I savored every page of this spellbinding debut. Reimer is truly a writer to watch.”—Fiona Davis, New York Times bestselling author of The Spectacular

"Mesmerizing, poignant, and elegantly wrought, this is the best novel I’ve read in ages! Do yourself a favour and read The Mother Act—then share it with your book club, your best friends, and the women you love talking to most."—Marissa Stapley, New York Times bestselling author of Lucky

“Heidi Reimer’s debut The Mother Act is an incisive and at-times raw exploration of what it means to be both a mother and an artist, and the fallout that comes when you have to choose. Told in six acts, and spanning years in the lives of ambitious Sadie and the daughter she abandoned as a baby, Jude, readers are in expert hands with Reimer’s storytelling. Provocative and profound, this is a beautiful take on the mother-daughter story.”—Karma Brown, #1 international bestselling author of Recipe for a Perfect Wife

Being a mother is hard

This story resonates with a lot of mothers who are overwhelmed with motherhood and the reality is we don't talk about it enough.

Emotions

Strong emotions, filled with passion and regrets. A lot of justification on Mother and Daughter

The characters are dull

There weren’t any ideas in the book we haven’t all come across millions of times. The characters were dull, almost caricatures. The readers added nothing and maybe made it worse. I did finish the book so 2 stars was as low as I could go.