MOTHERS AND SONS is the newest addition to Adam Haslett’s writing that offers up feelings of secrets, abandonment and what might have been.

Peter Fischer is an immigration asylum lawyer, estranged from his mother for twenty years after an act of violence ended a relationship that could have been. His mother, Ann, along with two others, Claire and Roberta, operate a women’s retreat center. And while his mother is content with where her life has taken her, Peter is in an ever revolving Groundhog Day situation of work, home and occasional hookups with a man who wants more from Peter that he is either unwilling or unable to give. As mother and son move through their lives, the ever present memories linger.

I found this to be a novel of facing the past, learning forgiveness and moving forward. I did find a tear or two rolling down my cheek. The only problem I had was that there was quite a bit of foreign language. Too much for me anyway and at times it was distracting. I would be interested to see if this is in the author’s other works.

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for this ARC opportunity. All opinions are my own and given voluntarily.

Imagine me gone was one of the best books I’ve read and I was excited to receive the arc of this long anticipated follow-up. Mothers and sons is the story of Peter, a gay immigration lawyer who has a strained relationship with his sister, Liz and their mother, Ann. Through trying to help
An undocumented immigrant, vasal, Peter begins to question his own concepts of family and his relationships. An incident occurred when Peter was 15 that set the course of his life in motion and helps explain the distance between him and his mother. Peter spends the rest of his adult life running from the incident and his family, but has he reached the point where it’s time to face the past?

Told in 3 parts (Peter’s first person present day, Ann’s past through an omniscient narrator, and the incident 25 years ago), the story is driven by Peter and Ann. Like imagine me gone, the novel is about family and relationships and the prose is seamless and beautiful. I admit that for some reason the shifts in time and pov was jarring to me, but in retrospect, it is necessary for this novel and adds to the understanding of Peter and Ann. Not as good as imagine me gone, but a worthy follow- up.

Thanks to the publisher for the arc via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for gifting me a digital ARC of the latest by Adam Haslett. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4 stars!

Peter is an asylum lawyer in New York City, overworked and isolated. He spends his days immersed in the struggles of his clients only to return to an empty apartment and occasional hook-ups. But when the asylum case of a young gay man pierces Peter's numbness, the event that he has avoided for twenty years returns to haunt him. Peter is mostly estranged from his mother, Ann, who runs a women's retreat center she founded after leaving his father. The secret that both mother and son share is the one that they can't talk about and has torn them apart.

The story plays out in the present, alternating between Peter and Ann, as well as gradually revealing the past incident that has caused their rift. It's interesting to see how these family dynamics played out - and there were a lot of issues in this family. Even though Ann spent her life listening to people's problems, she often failed at that in her own life. This looks at how traumatic events carry over in our lives, especially when they are hidden. There were a lot of heartbreaking immigration stories, highlighting this issue, I did feel that they tended to slow the book down, especially in the beginning, but the last part of the book tied everything together perfectly and kept me glued.

3.5

“You can’t protect weakness. It only invites people to harm you.”

Thank you to NetGalley and Little, Brown and Company for the ARC.

I had heard great things about Adam Haslett and his books, so I decided to request this ARC when I was looking for my next ARC reads on NetGalley. While the writing is absolutely beautiful and the story at times can be intriguing, I found this book rather dull.

The two main characters were not likeable, and their stories fell short, which is a shame since a rather large part of the books is about a mother and a son who had become estranged due to a crime that had occurred years before. The son is an immigration lawyer, and I loved when he interviewed his clients and the stories they shared about their past in a country where crime and homophobia was a regular, run of the mill occurrence. The stories they told were hard to read so definitely be mindful of trigger warnings.

About 70 percent of the book was rather slow paced, while the rest was not. I was hoping the reconciliation of the mother and son would be more gut wrenching and beautiful, but it was not as satisfactory as I had hoped.

Overall, I believe this book could have had more heart and more emotional moments for the mother and son.

There is always a dance between the truth and self-justification, between what happened and what we tell ourselves. This dance is at the center of *Mothers and Sons,* Adam Haslett’s new novel. This one is for you if you have grappled with personal history and family relationships. And it marks an impressive start to my 2025 reading - as it is a powerful and thoughtful piece of literary fiction.

*Mothers and Sons* focuses on Peter, a gay asylum lawyer, and his estranged mother Ann, a co-founder of a women's retreat. Through their interweaving narratives, Haslett examines how we construct stories about ourselves and our past—sometimes to heal, sometimes to hide, and sometimes to justify. The novel's genius lies in how it reveals how these personal narratives can simultaneously illuminate and obscure the truth, much like holding a flashlight in a dark room: what we choose to illuminate often leaves other areas in shadow.

The prose is precise and evocative, never wasting a word. Late in the novel, it dawned on me that Peter’s professional work—helping asylum seekers craft their narratives to justify their stay in America—is similar to his personal struggle to understand his own story. Meanwhile, Ann's role as a source of healing for other women while struggling to connect with her son creates a poignant tension that drives the narrative forward. I found myself more drawn to the chapters featuring Peter than Ann, but perhaps that is my own bias shining through.

This book will resonate with readers who appreciate nuanced family dramas, those interested in the psychology of relationships, and anyone who has ever struggled to bridge the gap between their own perspective and that of a family member. It's also an important addition to the canon of LGBTQ+ literature, though its universal themes of connection, understanding, and self-discovery transcend any single categorization. I found myself thinking about Hollinghurt’s *Our Evenings*, Rapp’s *Wolf at the Table* and Attenberg’s *A Reason to See You Again". I suppose I have a thing for family dramas since they help me understand my own experiences, or at least provide catharsis to process what I've been through.

Bottom Line: This novel not only entertains but also serves as a lesson about our own tendencies to shape and reshape our personal histories. It is an excellent choice to begin the reading year with.

This is my first book by Adam Haslett's and while I think the writing is superb, I could not find a way to connect with the characters. I'm fascinated by the relationships between sons and their mothers, and sadly, this book didn't capture my interest as I hoped it would.

I'm grateful to NetGalley and Little, Brown for the opportunity to read an ARC Mothers and Sons.

Quiet, thoughtful, and revelatory. Adam Haslett is a master, and his prose in Mothers and Sons made me want to break out a highlighter on every page. While the coming out story is well worn at this point, I thought this particular examination offered so much more, and beautifully. The flashbacks that reveal what happened between Peter and Jared were especially moving to me, and I really loved the way Haslett handled "the secret" at the book's core without being flashy.

Thank you to the publisher and Netgalley for the opportunity to read this one in advance of its publication. I loved this book so much that I ordered a finished copy, too.

In Pulitzer finalist Haslett’s first novel in nearly a decade, he focuses on two characters: Peter Fischer and his estranged mother, Ann. Peter, a 40 year old gay man, is going through the motions as an immigration attorney and is barely engaged in even the most casual of relationships. When he is assigned to the case of Vasal Marku, an Albanian asylum seeker whose own sexuality placed him in jeopardy in his country, Peter is concerned that he has become attracted to his client: “That all my efforts on his behalf have been a disguise for appetite. A means to draw him to me.” Marku reawakens Peter’s memories of a high school crush that he had on Jared Hanlan, a popular young man whom everyone saw as “beautiful.” Even Hanlan’s chic mother recognized her son’s charisma, his ability to make friends, and his “inability to stick around.”

Peter’s mother, Ann, was a minister at an Episcopal congregation in Longfield, Massachusetts. When her children were teenagers, she left her husband who idealized her, gave up the priesthood and the rectory where she had raised her family, and created a community with her lover, Clare, and their friend, Roberta, in the hillside of Vermont near the Canadian border. Viriditas was a “ministry of hospitality” a place for woman to talk amongst themselves. “To the kids, Clare would always be the woman who’d bullied her way in when they least wanted anyone else around. And Ann had done little to help the situation.” But to the visitors to Viriditas, Ann and Clare were the model couple who gave up a conventional life and became conscious partners.

Haslett writes a beautiful sentence, but Peter’s life is not particularly riveting, and we do not get to the central conflict until three quarters into the novel. If a reader can perservere, the payoff at the conclusion of the novel is heartbreaking and hopeful. Thank you Little, Brown & Company and Net Galley for an advanced copy of this tale of familial trauma.

This was the first book by this author that I had read and I am now motivated to go back to his earlier works. There are plenty of mothers and sons here. The central pair, Ann and Peter, have been estranged since a tragic event that took place when Peter was in high school and Ann was in the process of leaving the ministry, beginning a relationship with another woman, and caring for her dying husband. This moment is beyond freighted--maybe a bit too much going on--and the emotions from that time take a good twenty-five years to work out. In the present, Peter is a gay, overworked asylum lawyer in New York City who buries his past and keeps his emotions at bay until he takes on a young gay Albanian client, Vasel, whose own challenges and Peter's growing obsession with him, cause Peter to spiral. Ann has moved with her lover to northern Vermont to open a women's retreat center. Meanwhile, her daughter Liz, a wild child, has somehow found the most traditional family with her husband and her own young son.

There are three other mother/son relationships here as well. One of Peter's clients is fighting deportation in part to protect her struggling son. Vasel's mother saves his life in Albania when he is outed and spirits him out of the country. Finally, Jared, Peter's high school crush and his mother, who both seem perfect and beautiful to Peter's young eyes, are both more complex.

The thematic link here is mothers saving their sons. Another theme is how people you think you know can act and react in ways that shake up your preconceptions. A third theme is violence, both historical and familial--how we acknowledge it and how we move beyond it.

The book is well-written, nicely-paced, and very moving with lovely descriptions of rural Vermont and, referencing Hart Crane, the Brooklyn Bridge. I think, ultimately, the book is a about making and finding peace--between mothers and sons and between the past and the present.

This emotionally charged novel beautifully captures the complexities of family, guilt, and the power of facing long-buried truths. The exploration of Peter and Ann's estranged bond and the secret that has kept them apart for decades is masterfully done. Mothers and Sons was a quiet, yet deeply painful read that will resonate deeply with anyone who has ever struggled to reconcile their past. Absolutely loved it.

A mother and a son so consumed by their morals and advocacies that they lose sight of on another, and the tragedy that first splintered them. Peter, an asylum lawyer in New York City, is overworked and isolated...even more isolated than he himself realizes. He is laser-focused on his career, which Haslett exposes in raw detail, from corrupt judges and prosecutors to exhausted and overworked refugees, and the horrifying traumas that led them to Peter's office. Although he is dedicated, he doesn't really care...about anything. Until he meets a gay--like himself--asylum seeker with a story that sends Peter right back into his own coming out...and the tragedy that splintered his relationship with his mother.

Ann, his mother, meanwhile, runs a women's retreat center focused on presence, healing, and active listening. But although she has changed the lives of countless women for the better, her attention falls short when it comes to her own loved ones, including her late ex-husband, her adult children, and her current partner, for whom she left her husband and with whom she started the retreat. Ann is a complex character: not unlikable, per se, but not always likable either. Witnessing her discretions through her son's memories, we see a woman torn between her life and her values.

As Peter unravels with thoughts of his past and his difficult job helping the gay asylum-seeker who so affected him, he starts to clock his isolation and his need for something: forgiveness, redemption, connection...he's not sure, but he knows it's time to change. A reunion with his mother brings the past into sharp relief, exposing the healing powers of reflection, communion, and awareness. A slowburn novel at first, MOTHERS AND SONS is gripping in its emotion and its willingness to confront both difficult global issues and more intimate, yet no less universal, ones. I had a bit of trouble getting into this one, but as the characters of Peter and Ann are drawn out, you see that this inaccessibility is by design, a perfect mirror of Haslett's closed-off characters. As they come to terms with themselves, the narrative opens and expands, inviting readers in for the ultimate redemption and healing arc. A gorgeous, necessarily difficult novel, this will be a surefire hit with book clubs.

This is my first Adam Haslett novel and I loved it. I admit I was not too into it at first (Ann’s sections were not grasping me as much as Peter’s), but I knew I had to be patient with it because it would all eventually make sense (or so I hoped!).

I am glad I kept reading, because the way that Haslett started peeling away the complexities of this mother and son to give us such a beautiful story makes me just want to read it again so that I can appreciate the journey more.

Also, the side characters in both of their lives added so much to this story.

Read this!

This book was so good! It was heartfelt and had some beautiful moments of empathy that really made me put the book down just to take it all in. I highly recommend this one!

Peter is a middle-aged asylum lawyer in New York City and struggling to have a meaningful life outside of his demanding job. When he reluctantly takes the case of a young gay man, it brings back memories from his high school days and struggling with his identify that he has tried to forget.

Needing a break, he heads to his mother's retreat center for the first time in years. Ann had left his father years ago and feels that led to their estrangement. But as both Peter and Ann rehash that part of their past, the learn more about each other and the secret that created their rift.

I really enjoyed the themes of identify, family, past trauma, and how it can be healing to talk through things with your family, even if it seems like they are resolved. I also really appreciated the insight into the 'day in the life of' and asylum lawyer.

This book is a perfect example of why I shouldn't have created by "Best of 2024" list a moment before the end of the year. Because this book should be on that list. It has already claimed a spot on my best of 2025 list,, and because it's published in January 2025, I'm at peace with that.

Mothers and Sons tells the story of Peter, an attorney who represents asylum seekers in Manhattan. It's clear early in the novel that Peter's job consumes more of his life than is healthy. A gay man, he avoids deep or enduring emotional connection with any one partner, instead indulging in a series of emotionally empty liaisons. Peter's mother, Ann, lives in Vermont, where she, with two other women, runs a spiritual retreat for women. A former Episcopal priest, Ann left her husband for Clare when her children (Peter and his sister Liz) were teenagers. Liz has accepted that; Peter is still, years later, a bit miffed. Peter and Ann are estranged, speaking very infrequently and allowing years to pass between visits.

One day, Peter meets with Vasel, a young Albanian man who fled his country after being caught in an intimate situation with another young man in his hometown. Peter is intrigued by Vasel, a young man slowly learning to own his sexuality after spending time with the queer community in New York City. But Vasel is less than cooperative in building his own case, and Peter spirals into old memories that slowly unfold to reveal the cause of the rift with his mother.

I realize this review is light on details about Ann, and that shouldn't imply that she's not a vibrant, exquisitely written character because she is. In fact, I dare say she was my favorite. Her relationship with Clare, and the depiction of her journey from a married, heterosexual priest to queer woman living in the Vermont outback with her partner resonated deeply with me. Her relationship with Clare was gratifying in its genuineness.

The final resolution of this book was perfectly done. I have not even alluded to what that entails, because I don't want to spoil this amazing novel for anyone. Just read it. It will be your favorite of 2025, too.

Huge thank you to the publisher, Little, Brown & Company, for so kindly providing me with an ARC of this amazing novel. I've already ordered a hardcover from my local indy. I love it that much.

Mothers and Sons follows Peter, an immigration lawyer, and his mother Ann, who runs a retreat for women who are functionally estranged. For Peter, a case involving a young, gay asylum seeker forces him to reexamine a tragic part of his past that he thought he had long buried and eventually propels him and his mother back into each others lives as they are forced to confront the way this tragedy has shaped their present. Adam Haslett is masterful at weaving themes throughout the story and in fleshing out the story and characters in such a believable way as he explores family, grief, love, and desire, and how ultimately, we are a product of the past, both our own and our ancestor’s, but that this does not have to dictate our future. The only issue I had with this book is that the majority is told through Peter’s perspective, who is a fantastic main character and one who feels real through reading this book, but that this left Ann sometimes feeling somewhat underdeveloped. Peter’s actions and motivations were developed, but it often felt that as soon as we as the reader came close to delving further into Ann, the story shifted away from her. Peter could have walked off the page and I would have recognized him, but Ann still at times felt like an outline and I often wondered if the book would not have lost much without her perspective and could certainly have benefited with more exploration of her character.

Imagine Me Gone by Adam Haslett is one of my favorite books. His description of depression is unparalleled. I was very excited to be approved for this book. I really enjoyed the sections about Peter and his clients but was unengaged with the women's retreat. Very little of those sections were interesting to me and frankly, i was bored. As a result the book did not work for me. I will still watch for his next book because I think he is a real talent.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Little Brown for the advanced readers copy and my best wishes to Adam Haslett for every sucess!

Peter is a workaholic lawyer who represents immigrants who are seeking asylum; Ann, his mother, is an ex-pastor who runs a women-only therapeutic retreat. In the present, Peter finds himself increasingly fixated on helping a reluctant Albanian client while his mother works through the complicated relationships at her retreat. Interspersed are chapters that take place in the past, when Peter was a teenager who was trying to navigate both his sexuality and his parents’ breakup. The layers of the past slowly peel away to expose a life-changing event that sheds light on Peter’s behavior in the present towards both his client and his mother.


Haslett is quite talented at creating fully-fleshed out characters that are interesting and easy to envision. He is also talented at writing interesting scenes, yet somehow it didn’t all cohere in a way that I found compelling. I enjoyed myself as I was reading, but each time I set the book down I did not find myself looking forward to picking it back up. There was a lot of repetition; I read numerous descriptions of clients and court cases which were interesting on their own but all together they started to drag and I just wanted to yell “ok, I get it already!” I think Haslett had a wonderful idea for this book but the execution was just ever so slightly off.

So would I recommend this book? Yes, but not to everyone. It needs to be read slowly enough that you can savor his writing without finding it monotonous.

A bit of a taboo or more-so common topic - the way Adam Haslett brings to life this relationship is really beautiful and cathartic. I think this is a great book for a book club because it's the catalyst for a lot of conversation, experiences, and resonation.

Unfortunately, while I was a big fan of Haslett's previous novels, this one is not for me. While the estranged relationship between mother and son was interesting, the focus on the women's retreat and related spiritual discussions and storylines were not. Hugely disappointed but will continue to follow Haslett's work.