Gina Sorell's new novel is Mothers and Other Strangers.From her Q&A with Deborah Kalb:
Q: How did you come up with the idea for Mothers and Other Strangers, and for your main character, Elsie?Visit Gina Sorell's website.
A: I've always ben obsessed with identity and the idea of belonging. And I've always been fascinated by people's recollections of their own lives and how we edit our own personal histories to serve our own purposes. I wanted to write about that and about family and secrets, and the lies we tell when the truth is too much.
Elsie is familiar to me; a complicated woman who has survived a cold and distant parent that hasn't nurtured them. And yet, she is someone whose capacity for love and a desire for a happier life, compels her to try and understand what shaped her mother and created her failings.
She does this in an effort to not only move on and heal, but also out of a genuine desire to have some sort of relationship with her mother. My own mother is amazing, thankfully. But...[read on]
--Marshal Zeringue