"Jessica O’Dwyer gives us a story we’ve never heard before—one that manages to look with compassion and authenticity and grip-your-chair dramatic tension at the subjects of infertility, marriage, adoption, and most of all, motherhood. She takes us from the world of comfortable middle-class life to the mysterious, sometimes dark and sometimes beautiful and largely unknown territory of Guatemala, and gives a kind of heroine no reader is likely to have met on the page, until now: a mother willing to do anything to save her child. You will not put this book down until you’ve finished, and once you have, you will not forget it." 

—Joyce Maynard, author of The Best of Us

“Pain, loss, and love are showcased side-by-side, highlighting how motherly love goes beyond social status, country, and family background.”

—Rossana Pérez, editor of Flight to Freedom: The Story of Central American Refugees

“Jessica gives a very clear and knowledgeable panorama of Guatemala, from its colonial roots to today’s society pervaded with racism, classism, and an inoperative government. At the same time, she describes the sublime, real, and extremely hard truth of adoption. I could relate to each line as a Guatemalan and as an adoptive mom.”

—Cynthia M. Guerra, National Director of Education at the Ombudsman Office in Guatemala 2014-17; Human Rights Activists and educator

“Through vivid imagery, Jessica O’Dwyer’s prose depicts poverty without stripping it of its dignity while at the same contrasting the trappings of white privilege. But at its heart Mother Mother is a story of family, relationships, the bonds of blood and beyond. As O’Dwyer herself writes, ‘Love is an action, not a concept.’”

—Janine Kovac, author of Spinning: Choreography for Coming Home

“I devoured this book. The dual storylines captivated me and the characters stayed with me even when the novel wasn't in my hands. I loved learning more about Guatemala, and that Jessica O’Dwyer didn't shy away from some horrid parts of humanity that many children—and their first parents—must face as part of their own history.”

—Lori Holden, author of The Open-Hearted Way to Open Adoption, honored by the Congressional Coalition of Adoption Institute in 2018 as an Angel in Adoption®

“Wow is such a minuscule word to describe this book, but I can’t think of a better one.”

—Sheryl Smith, Co-Founder of East Bay Guatemalan Adoptive Families

“Mother Mother is realistic and different, gripping and tragic. Novels don’t often take you to Guatemala. This one does, showing in a raw way how hard life is in that largely unknown country.”

—Marjolein Balm, Marjolein Reads book blog

“Mother Mother was such a moving story that I couldn’t put it down. The book draws you in, blurring the lines between reality and fiction.”

—CarlyRae London, Hey It’s CarlyRae! book blog