Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, 20th Anniversary Edition 3rd edition

"For twenty years, this "beautifully written" (USA Today), "moving, comprehensive and insightful look at the lifelong ramifications of the loss of a mother" (San Francisco Chronicle) has been the book a woman can turn to for understanding and comfort when her mother dies. Building on interviews with hundreds of motherless daughters, Hope Edelman's unique and courageous work also reflects her personal experience with the continued legacy of mother loss. An exploration of a profoundly life-altering rite-of-passage, Motherless Daughters is for any woman who wants to better understand the mother-daughter relationship. "--
The author joins with other women whose mothers died when they were young to discuss the lasting effects of this loss on their identity, family, relationships with others, and decisions in life.
Ask any woman whose mother has died, and she will tell you that she is irrevocably altered, as deeply changed by her mother's death as she was by her mother's life. Although a mother's mortality is inevitable, no book had discussed the profound, lasting, and far-reaching effects of this loss--until Motherless Daughters, which became an instant classic. Twenty years later, it is still the book that women of all ages look to for comfort and understanding when their mothers die, and the book that they continue to press into each other's hands.Building on interviews with hundreds of mother-loss survivors, the author's personal story of losing her mother, recent research in grief and psychology, and with a new afterword exploring how the legacy of mother loss shifts with the passage of time, Motherless Daughters reveals the shared experiences and core identity issues of motherless women:Why the absence of a nurturing hand shapes a woman's identity throughout her lifespanHow present-day relationships are defined by past lossesHow a woman can resolve past conflicts and move toward acceptance and healingWhat grief really is: not a linear passage, but an ongoing cyclical journey
The 20th Anniversary edition of the New York Times bestseller, with a new afterword by the author.