Motherless Daughters Paperback – Special Edition, 1 Jan. 1642

The examples are sometimes lengthy and wordy. The content is quite similar in parts and in my experience this book is targeted at daughters who lost their mother early in life and I have struggled to find relatable content to my own scenario - lost my father in adolescence, mother suffered ill health for many years and we were anticipating her death for a long time and how we have felt since her death has been a surprise, I was hoping to find some answers and reassurance but sadly not through this book

This is my first book review ever, but I feel a duty to share my impressions about this great book, which would have been invaluable to me 16 years ago, when I lost my Mother.As the book title implies, you would expect many sad stories of girls and adult women, who lost their mothers at a young age, and how hard a life they had. Certainly, you will find plenty of tearful examples; however the book is not written with the intention of making you cry. Just the opposite - it makes some important points: yes, your Mother died when you were very young, and you are one of those unlucky 5 % of population to experience an early loss, and to face far more challenges in your life than normal; however you can do something constructive with your life, as your Mother would have wished. Surprisingly the author highlights a few positive aspects connected with this loss, e.g. such women usually are more responsible, successful, and creative, etc.In the book motherless daughters are compared to a female phoenix, a mythical sacred fire bird which can be reborn from its own ashes. Isn't it a nice metaphor?

Bought for a friends birthday. She cried when she opened the gift and read the blurb. She has since told me that even the first few pages hit home and so she whilst upsetting to read, she can't put it down.

LOVED THIS BOOK. It is a discussion about every situation that you could go through when losing your mum and it really felt I wasn't so alone in the world. I've bought this book twice as didn't want to give my copy away to a friend. Would recommend to anyone who has lost their mother no matter what situation

After reading recommendations on Mumsnet I thought I'd give this a try. Not finished the book yet but it has really helped my grieving process. I would reccomend to all not just those who lost very early in life. Has been so helpful.

I can only echo a lot of what the other reviewers have said about this fantastic book. It is very thorough and well written and the best I have read about bereavement of a mother. It is very detailed and not wishy washy which a lot of books of this type can be. I would recommend it to women who have lost a mother and to the fathers who are left behind who may want a bit of insight into what their daughters may encounter in the grieving process. Some of my friends, who are counsellors and doctors, have read this and are recommending it to their patients.

The fact that I had to buy this book tells you my original state of mind. I even noted the writing, and the author presented many perspectives. It was worth reading...wasn’t life changing, but was helpful.

This is a patchy collection of anecdotes and snippets of psychology. It's definitely aimed at women whose mothers died when they (the daughters) were under 25, and isn't really suitable for later, 'normal' mother loss. I am in the target demographic but I don't think I'll ever refer to this book again. The two overarching messages I took from Edelman, and which pervade the book, were:1.We idealise our dead mothers, honouring them ‘by granting them posthumous perfection’. The book continually returns to the theme of exalting the 'flawless' dead mother. I could not relate to this TBH.2. Although pregnancy and childbirth churn up lots of psychological trauma around the absent mother, she agrees that most people ‘find renewal and the healing of childhood pain in the experience of bringing a child into the world’. She concludes that motherless daughters say they ‘feel whole again’ when they have a child of their own. Seemingly, women can only find resolution through having a baby. Not helpful for me. She makes no effort to suggest resolution through other means.Some interesting ideas in the book but at the end of the day, not helpful for me. Edelman can only relate to women that are like herself, motherless mothers, married with their own children.