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y separately published work icon Mother of Pearl single work   novel  
Issue Details: First known date: 2019... 2019 Mother of Pearl
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AbstractHistoryArchive Description

'A luminous and courageous story about the hopes and dreams we all have for our lives and relationships, and the often fraught and unexpected ways they may be realised.

Angela Savage draws us masterfully into the lives of Anna, an aid worker trying to settle back into life in Australia after more than a decade in Southeast Asia; Meg, Anna’s sister, who holds out hope for a child despite seven fruitless years of IVF; Meg's husband Nate, and Mukda, a single mother in provincial Thailand who wants to do the right thing by her son and parents.

The women and their families' lives become intimately intertwined in the unsettling and extraordinary process of trying to bring a child into the world across borders of class, culture and nationality. Rich in characterisation and feeling, Mother of Pearl, and the timely issues it raises, will generate discussion amongst readers everywhere.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

Publication Details of Only Known VersionEarliest 2 Known Versions of

    • Yarraville, Footscray - Maribyrnong area, Melbourne - West, Melbourne, Victoria,: Transit Lounge , 2019 .
      image of person or book cover 7002893728548617414.jpg
      This image has been sourced from online.
      Extent: 320 p.p.
      Note/s:
      • Published July 2019.

      ISBN: 9781925760354 (pbk)

Works about this Work

Review of ‘Mother of Pearl’ by Angela Savage Patricia Johnson , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Editor's Desk - 2020 2020;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel
Megan Cheong Reviews Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage Megan Cheong , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , August no. 25 2020;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'When I open a book by a white writer and am confronted by the point of view of a person of colour, my body tenses as if in anticipation of a blow. Rather than reading, I pick nervously at the writing in search of cliché and oversimplification. Because the source of the tension I feel in relation to point of view is less a question of who has a right to whose story than it is one of craft. As Rankine and Loffreda point out in their introduction to The Racial Imaginary, “our imaginations are creatures as limited as we ourselves are” and therefore susceptible to the same preconceptions under which we labour as the products of an entire history of racist culture, politics and violence. The first-principle question is not therefore: “can I write from another’s point of view?”, but instead: “why and what for?”' (Introduction)

Book Review : Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage Erich Mayer , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , August 2019;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'A novel that examines the complex issue of surrogacy through the eyes of three women.'

Book Review : Angela Savage’s Mother of Pearl. Angela Wauchop , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Other Terrain , December no. 8 2019;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel
Ordinary Brutality of Life Louise Swinn , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 August 2019; (p. 22)

— Review of Fortune Lenny Bartulin , 2019 single work novel ; Snake Island Ben Hobson , 2019 single work novel ; Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'When Elisabeth and Johannes catch a glimpse of each other through a window at the start of Lenny Bartulin’s Fortune, it’s as if they already know one another. As the novel progresses we follow the separate journeys of these two characters, along with a cast of others, wondering if their paths will cross again.' (Introduction)

Angela Savage : Mother of Pearl Linda Jaivin , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Saturday Paper , 10-16 August 2019;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'Mother of Pearl tells the story of a surrogacy from the perspectives of three different women. Meg, a married 39-year-old jeweller from Melbourne, is desperate for a child. Years of IVF treatments have left her bereft, her grief like “a wild animal in a cage”. It’s 2008, the eighth year of south-eastern Australia’s worst drought, and even her once-lush garden is barren, its lawn “straw”, the “ferns like brown bones”.' (Introduction)

Ordinary Brutality of Life Louise Swinn , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: The Weekend Australian , 3 August 2019; (p. 22)

— Review of Fortune Lenny Bartulin , 2019 single work novel ; Snake Island Ben Hobson , 2019 single work novel ; Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'When Elisabeth and Johannes catch a glimpse of each other through a window at the start of Lenny Bartulin’s Fortune, it’s as if they already know one another. As the novel progresses we follow the separate journeys of these two characters, along with a cast of others, wondering if their paths will cross again.' (Introduction)

Megan Cheong Reviews Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage Megan Cheong , 2020 single work review
— Appears in: Mascara Literary Review , August no. 25 2020;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'When I open a book by a white writer and am confronted by the point of view of a person of colour, my body tenses as if in anticipation of a blow. Rather than reading, I pick nervously at the writing in search of cliché and oversimplification. Because the source of the tension I feel in relation to point of view is less a question of who has a right to whose story than it is one of craft. As Rankine and Loffreda point out in their introduction to The Racial Imaginary, “our imaginations are creatures as limited as we ourselves are” and therefore susceptible to the same preconceptions under which we labour as the products of an entire history of racist culture, politics and violence. The first-principle question is not therefore: “can I write from another’s point of view?”, but instead: “why and what for?”' (Introduction)

Book Review : Angela Savage’s Mother of Pearl. Angela Wauchop , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: Other Terrain , December no. 8 2019;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel
Book Review : Mother of Pearl by Angela Savage Erich Mayer , 2019 single work review
— Appears in: ArtsHub , August 2019;

— Review of Mother of Pearl Angela Savage , 2019 single work novel

'A novel that examines the complex issue of surrogacy through the eyes of three women.'

Last amended 30 May 2019 13:51:31
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