Other Mother — Gwendolen Gross

With a keen eye for what pulls us apart and what brings us together, The Other Mother shines a light on the complexities of mothers trying to balance it all. 

Amanda is a successful book editor at a prominent publishing house in New York City. Thea is a stay-at-home mother of three who has never really left the community in which she grew up. Eight months' pregnant with her first child, Amanda and her husband move next door to Thea and her family, and the two women find themselves both drawn to and repelled by each other and their opposing choices in the constant struggle to balance career and family life.

When a disaster forces Amanda and her family to take refuge in Thea's home, the tensions simmering between them are forced to the surface and rise even further when Thea fills in as Amanda's temporary nanny. But once dead animals start appearing on Thea's front porch and she thinks that surely they're a macabre gift from Amanda, then the battle with “the other mother” begins in earnest.

Gwendolen Gross has created a stunning, dark, suspenseful novel that is as brave as it is shocking.