She ricochets between crippling sadness and explosive rage, haunting guilt and a desperate desire to make sense of what happened to her son. Once a quintessential doting mother, Marcia’s loss of both her son and the intimacy of her marriage has left her in total isolation, despite a support network that includes her sister and a family liaison officer who has become a stoic, intuitive friend. Marcia is a remarkable woman, and Edwards gives her plenty of space to work her way through a rollercoaster of emotions. But as the trial moves forward, the world outside the Williams’ front door comes into agonizing, terrifying focus. While Marcia summons the strength to attend the trial from the very beginning, partly in hopes of gaining some closure from the proceedings, Lloydie completely withdraws, spending his time gardening and avoiding one-on-one time with his wife. Tyson Manley, a troubled boy the same age as Ryan, has been charged with the crime, suspected of stabbing Ryan after learning they were involved with the same girl. Nearly a year after losing Ryan, their 16-year-old son, parents Marcia and Lloydie Williams are bracing themselves for the beginning of the murderer’s trial. The Mother is a grounded work that explores not only the deeply personal experience of losing a child, but the larger societal context in which children fall through the cracks and grow up too fast. In her second novel, author Yvvette Edwards probes the depths of grief, loss and hope.
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