Mother's Promise (Hepworth)

The Mother's Promise 
Sally Hepworth, 2017
St. Martin's Press
384 pp.
ISBN-13: 9781250077752


Summary
All their lives, Alice Stanhope and her daughter, Zoe, have been a family of two, living quietly in Northern California. Zoe has always struggled with crippling social anxiety and her mother has been her constant and fierce protector.

With no family to speak of, and the identity of Zoe’s father shrouded in mystery, their team of two works—until it doesn’t. Until Alice gets sick and needs to fight for her life.

Desperate to find stability for Zoe, Alice reaches out to two women who are practically strangers but who are her only hope: Kate, a nurse, and Sonja, a social worker.

As the four of them come together, a chain of events is set into motion and all four of them must confront their sharpest fears and secrets—secrets about abandonment, abuse, estrangement, and the deepest longing for family.

Imbued with heart and humor in even the most dismal moments, The Mother’s Promise is an unforgettable novel about the unbreakable bonds between mothers and daughters and the new ways in which families are forged. (From the publisher.)

Author Bio
• Birth—June 10, 1980
• Where—Australia
• Education—Monash University
• Currently—lives in Melbourne, Australia


Sally Hepworth is a former Event Planner and HR professional. A graduate of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia, she started writing novels after the birth of her first child.

She is the author of Love Like The French (2014, published in Germany). The Secret of Midwives (2015), The Things We Keep (2016), and The Family Next Door (2018).

Sally has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the U.K., and Canada, and she now writes full-time from her home in Melbourne, Australia, where she lives with her husband and two children. (From the publisher.)

Book Reviews
The Mother’s Promise is a chick-lit tearjerker that nevertheless conveys with sympathy and some depth in the stories of four Northern California women who face difficult health and family problems, including important issues not typically found in fiction.… Author Sally Hepworth…knows how to spin an engrossing plot. While some of the key twists are obvious 100 pages before their Big Reveals…they later take surprising turns.
Fran Hawthorne - New York Journal of Books


[A] difficult novel of women struggling with fear and loss.… This bittersweet, emotionally intense novel is recommended for readers who appreciate issue-driven stories by Jodi Picoult and Lisa Genova —Lesa Holstine, Evansville Vanderburgh P.L., IN
Library Journal


When a devoted single mom discovers she has ovarian cancer, her own health is the least of her worries. What will happen to her daughter?… Saccharine at times, the tale's threads knot up a bit too easily and implausibly. A sentimental parable about the power of motherhood, friendship, and love.
Kirkus Reviews

Discussion Questions
1. Sonja, Kate, and Alice all have service-oriented jobs but are very isolated when it comes to their personal struggles. Where do we see key moments in the story when they begin to open up their personal lives to others? What prompts these changes and why were they each so isolated before?

2. Where do we see examples of different characters hiding information in order to protect each other? In each example, do the secrets improve or worsen the situation? Would you make the same decisions?

3. In this novel we see two women struggling in their marriages in very different ways. On page 118, Sonja wonders, "Then again, what did it mean to make a marriage succeed? Was it simply about staying together? Or was there something more she should be striving for?" How do you define a successful marriage? 

4. What does Kate mean when, on page 164, she realizes that "marriage wasn’t meant to be conditional"?

5. How does Kate’s relationship with Zoe help her better understand her relationship with her own father?

6. Were you surprised when the identity of Zoe’s father was revealed? What was your reaction to the explanation that George gave to Sonja about his relationship with Alice?

7. Why does Alice react to Kate in such a strong, negative way at first? What are key moments when we see her attitude begin to change? Why does it change?

8. How do Zoe’s relationships with Kate and Harry affect her? Where do we see examples of the effect they have on her in her actions and demeanor?

9. On page 16, Sonja thinks, "Happiness was something you shared, chatted about, asked after. Suffering was something that you had to do behind closed doors, in silence, all alone." Where do we see difference characters living by this statement? Where do we see them going against it, and with what outcomes?

10.What do you imagine the future to hold for Zoe? What about for Kate and Sonja?
(Questions issued by the publisher.)

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