'The narration happens on two levels which intersect continually, giving life to a rich, final tapestry.(.) And yet this book isn’t as interested in emotional manipulation as it is in the invisible chasms that open up between people who know one another best.' - Mythili G.

(.) Passages of the novel may cause the grown children among Shin’s readers to cringe.

'Shin’s prose, intimate and hauntingly spare in this translation by Chi-Young Kim, moves from first to second and third person, and powerfully conveys grief’s bewildering immediacy.

Shin has anticipated that problem by ending the book with a not-to-be-believed scene set in Rome, where Mom is compared to the most sacred of maternal figures.' - Janet Maslin, The New York Times (Bonus sobbing cue: Nobody knew that Mom was secretly working at an orphanage in her spare time.) (.) But how well will it work elsewhere? Ms. Characters’ eyes begin watering, pooling with tears, brimming over, etc., as each one has the chance to realize that Mom was a treasure. (.) Penitence is, after all, this book’s whole point. Shin means to give each a highly personalized scolding. Mom’s high-strung careerist daughter and Mom’s faithless husband are both addressed by the author as 'you,' as if Ms. So the book is divided into sections, each devoted to the browbeating of a particular character.

'But we need to learn about her saintliness in stages.

'(D)espite the stock characters - and Shin's regrettable forays into pathos - the story somehow works, redeemed by the resolute So-nyo of the last chapters, a woman her husband and children never knew.' - Tina Jordan, Entertainment Weekly.

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Please look after mother book