In nine strikingly perceptive stories set miles and decades apart, Laura Furman mines the intricate, elusive lives of mothers and daughtersand of women who long for someone to nurture. Meet Rachel, a young girl desperate for her mothers unbridled attention, knowing that soon shell have to face the world alone; Marian, a celebrated novelist who betrays the one person willing to take care of her as she is dyingher unclaimed daughter; and Dinah, a childless widow uplifted by the abandoned, century-old diaries of Mary Ann, a mother of eleven. The Mother Who Stayed is an homage to the timeless, primal bond between mother and child and a testament that the relationships we cant define can be just as poignant, memorable, and inspiring as those determined by blood. Tender and insightful, Furmans stories also bravely confront darker realities of separation and regret, death and infidelityeven murder. Her vividly imagined characters and chiseled prose close the gap between generations of women as they share their wisdom almost in chorus: Although our lives will end, we must cherish the sanctity of each day and say, as did Mary Ann ages ago, I done what I could.
