Mother's milk : a novel / Edward St. Aubyn

The novel’s perspective ricochets among all members of the Melrose family - the family featured in St. Aubyn’s widely praised trilogy, Some Hope - starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and convincing account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favor of his sons; to Mary, who’s consumed by her children and overwhelming desire not to repeat the mistakes of her own mother. All the while, St. Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once illustrious family - whose last vestige of wealth, an old house in the south of France - is about to be donated by Patrick’s mother to a New Age foundation. An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery, and assisted suicide, Mother’s Milk showcases St. Aubyn’s luminous and acidic prose - and his ability to combine the most excruciating emotional pain with the driest comedy.

English

Shortlisted for the 2006 Man Booker Prize