You are what who you eat.Out on the Yorkshire Moors lives a secret line of people for whom books are food.Devon is part of The Family, an old and reclusive clan of these book eaters. Her brothers grow up feasting on stories of valor and adventure, and Devon—like other book eater women—is raised on a carefully curated diet of fairy tales and cautionary stories.But real life doesn’t like fairy tales, as she learns when her son is born with a rare and darker kind of hunger—not for books, but for human minds. The path to motherhood and the experience of motherhood can look different for everyone, and families are wildly different. What fiction can do for us is not only give us a window into different kinds of relationships and families, but also reflect back to us our own experiences, make us feel seen and heard, or provide comfort or humor just when we need it. I’ve put together a list of novels about motherhood and family that comprise a wide range of experiences, situations, and types of families. For me, the different voices are what makes this so interesting — they’re all about the general topic, but they’re all so wonderfully unique that you could read them all, one after the other, and not tire of the theme. Which one will you read first? If you’re looking for even more books on motherhood and family, check out this post on books about motherhood, and this post on must-read generational and family novels.
