Mother & Child
Mother & Child is a novel of appearance and disappearance, and the intense mystery of existence. A mediation on life and death, being and non-being, and the intense mystery and beauty of existence, Maso's new novel follows a mother and child as they roam through wondrous and increasingly dangerous psychic and physical terrain A great wind comes, an ancient tree splits in half and a bat, or is it an angel, enters the house where the mother and child sleep, and in an instant a world of relentless change, of spectacular consequences, of submerged memory, and uncanny intimations is set into motion.

It is as if a veil has lifted, and what was once hidden is now in plain sight in all its splendor and terror as the mother and child are asked to bear enormous transformations and a terrible wisdom almost impossible to fathom. As the outside can no longer be separated from the inside, nor (waking from dream) death life dream from reality, the mother and child continue, encountering along the way all kinds of characters and creatures moving through an austere and surreal world of grace and dread to the end. Both completely accessible and endlessly enigmatic, Mother & Child is a grave foray into our deepest fantasies, fears and wishes

Praise
There is lyricism and then there's Carole Maso's lyricism. In her first novel since 1998's Defiance, each evocative sentence is an incantation that embraces the reader and refuses to let go. Maso's surreal exploration of the fraught mother-daughter bond (complete with magical journeys and mysterious creatures) should be read in the afternoon shade, when you can savor each line.
Publishers Weekly