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Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, Second Edition [Paperback]

Hope Edelman
4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (156 customer reviews)

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Book Description

March 21, 2006
An instant bestseller in both hardcover and paperback, Hope Edelman's Motherless Daughters explores the myriad ways that losing a mother can affect almost every aspect and passage of a woman's life. First published a decade ago, it is still the book that motherless daughters of all ages look to for understanding and comfort and that they press into each other's hands. Building on interviews with hundreds of mother- loss survivors, this life-affirming book is now newly expanded to reflect the author's personal experience with the continued legacy of mother loss; now married and a mother of young children herself, Edelman better understands how the effects of mother loss change over time and in light of new relationships. A work of stunning courage and honesty, Motherless Daughters is a must read for the millions of women whose mothers have gone, but whose need for healing, mourning, and mothering remains. It is a timeless classic.

Frequently Bought Together

Motherless Daughters: The Legacy of Loss, Second Edition + Letters from Motherless Daughters: Words of Courage, Grief, and Healing + Motherless Mothers: How Losing a Mother Shapes the Parent You Become
Price for all three: $34.45

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Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Edelman shares her own painful story and the stories of many other women who, as children or adults, lost their mothers. She explains the stages of grief and adjustment. She considers the secondary effects that can occur: the girl-child filling the lost mother's role at home for father and younger siblings. If you've lost your mother, you no longer have to face it alone. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly

The death of a mother--particularly during one's young years--is traumatic. Writing of her own experiences of losing her mother when she was 17, and the grief of hundreds of women she interviewed who lost their mothers through death, abandonment or another form of separation, freelance writer Edelman marshals a wealth of anecdotal evidence, supplemented with psychological research about bereavement, that indicates that one's longing for a mother never disappears. Though the focus is on early loss for girls and the implications for their developing identity, adult daughters also speak in these pages to provide another poignant perspective. The author succeeds in opening up cathartic dialogues, personalizing a life-changing event and offering guidelines to help women of any age live with their loss. Author tour.
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

  • Paperback: 432 pages
  • Publisher: Da Capo Press; Second Edition edition (March 21, 2006)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0738210269
  • ISBN-13: 978-0738210261
  • Product Dimensions: 6 x 1.1 x 9 inches
  • Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (156 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #24,792 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Hope Edelman is the internationally acclaimed author of five nonfiction books, including the bestsellers Motherless Daughters and Motherless Mothers, as well as the recent memoir The Possibility of Everything. She has lectured extensively on the subjects of early mother loss and nonfiction writing in the U.S., Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. Her articles and reviews have appeared in numerous publications, including the New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Glamour, Child, Seventeen, Real Simple, Parents, Writer's Digest, and Self, and her original essays have appeared in many anthologies, including The Bitch in the House, Blindsided by a Diaper, and Behind the Bedroom Door. Her work has received a New York Times notable book of the year designation and a Pushcart Prize for creative nonfiction. She can be found in Iowa City every July teaching at the Iowa Summer Writing Festival. The rest of the year, she lives in Topanga Canyon, California, with her husband and their two daughters.


Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
136 of 137 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Helps with Healing July 27, 2000
Format:Paperback
I lost my mother to cancer when I was sixteen years old. When I went back to school after the funeral, I think I did what alot of girls do, I acted like I was fine, because I didn't want anyone to know what was going on inside of me. This lasted for a couple of years, and during my first year of college, my father bought me this book. I kept it unread in a drawer for a long time, I didn't want to deal with my moms death. She was my best friend, and I couldn't accept that she was gone. Finally, I picked up the book and began to read. I was only a few pages in, when I began to cry like I hadn't since the night she died. It was hard for me to read the book, but I did, a few pages at a time, over a couple of weeks. I never realized that while other girls lose their mother under different circumstances, there are still things that are similar, and bind all of we "motherless daughters" together. This book helped in ways I can't even begin to describe. It gave me someone to relate to (none of my friends had ever lost a parent). I highly recommend this book to anyone who has lost their mother, no matter how old you were, or how long ago it happened. It helped me face my pain, and work through it, like nothing else could. I know it is difficult to deal with, but Hope Edelman's book really helps make a tragic situation, a bit easier to cope with.
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49 of 51 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Excellent treatment of a very personal situation November 8, 2000
Format:Paperback
I lost my mother when I was just 13 years old and although it's been 16 years, I still feel the loss every day. Like the author, I had an overwhelming sense of grief in my mid-twenties. I mean it was like I was newly bereaved again. I would come home and cry. Or I would dream about her for consecutive nights. I am so glad that Ms. Edelmen took on this topic. Intellectually, I knew that I wasn't alone, but I am the only one in my immediate circle of friends whose mother is deceased so that makes for awkward moments on Mother's day and other holidays. Of course the sympathetic ones want to be a sort of replacement, but that's not what I want. I want my actual mother, my nurturer and my friend. It's so hard to explain to someone who hasn't experienced this loss, especially since I am an adult now. I remember that shortly after mom passed some callous relative actually had the nerve to tell me, "Life goes on." As if I didn't know that already. As if it were that simple.

Thank you Hope, for helping us motherless daughters understand that the impact of this loss can be lifelong. I've long suspected that the absence of my mother has affected my intimate relationships and even my relationships with other females. It's one thing to feel something intuitively and quite another to see that someone else has not only felt that same way, but has researched it. I'm still reading this book, but I felt so strongly about it that offer up my heartfelt thanks right now. This book is a blessing, and not just for daughter whose mothers are deceased. Hope also addresses women who have been abandoned ny their mothers and those who have never known their mothers.

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34 of 36 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars it's okay to grieve January 6, 2000
Format:Paperback
I am 24 and lost my mother two months ago. I have been feeling a deep sense of emptiness and have come to the conclusion that in general, the world seems to overlook the pain of parent loss. It's said to be a natural cycle of life, however, when you're young, there's nothing natural about it. I just happened across this book as I was browsing in a book store, and can honestly say that it has not only given me permission to grieve deeply, but it has validated many of my feelings of loss. As the world tends to tell you to "get on with your life," or "stop playing the victim," this book encourages people to aknowledge that mother loss is indeed a profound loss, and one that can affect a person for a long time. Accepting the painfulness of a loss and feeling grief is not playing the victim role, it's simply being human. As I watched the world respond to my mother's death, the outpouring for my father was tremendous and in many ways my sister and I stood in the background and observed this. This book confirmed that it's no wonder mother loss is so painful, it's the first relationship one ever experiences and once it's gone there is no substition, no new parent. My father may remarry, but my sister and I will never have another mother. Through this book I have been able to allow myself to grieve deeply and understand that my loss is not more, and certainly not less than anyone elses, just different.

The biggest thing I learned from reading this book was that it's important to face the grief and saddness head-on It has to be dealt with at some point and the sooner the better. I am so glad that someone was able validate and address the pain surrounding mother loss at not only a younger age, but at any age.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Love it!
This really touches the issues that daughters whose mothers have died are experiencing. As a counselor, I am recommending this for my clients
Published 25 days ago by Susan Singer
4.0 out of 5 stars good book
it is a very good book, but more geared to younger motherless daughters, unfortunately for me since I am motherless but not young!
Published 1 month ago by Lourdes Rodriguez-Nogues
4.0 out of 5 stars DV program
We ordered this for our DV women's counselor; haven't heard any feedback but she's great at ordering materials for I assume it fit the bill.
Published 1 month ago by Susan DeFoe
2.0 out of 5 stars Was not help full
Did not find it helpful...maybe you will. I am in a lot of pain and this was not helpful at all.
Published 1 month ago by D. L. Long
5.0 out of 5 stars I found out I have many sisters in losing my mother so young
I recommend this book to any woman who lost her mother before she grew up, and recommend it to their daughters as well. Read more
Published 2 months ago by nancy
5.0 out of 5 stars gift
but i looked through this book and I am very impressed with the information, and the gentleness this is written with, I hope it helps my friend.
Published 2 months ago by Tammy
5.0 out of 5 stars Helpful
One of Many books I read after my mother passed away last year. I think this book would be excellent for youth/ adolescent loss of a Mom.
Published 2 months ago by Leanna Case
2.0 out of 5 stars Sweeping generalizations, subtle homophobia
Having lost my mother at the age of nineteen, I identified strongly with the first few chapters of this book, which talk about a daughter's abilities/mechanisms to cope with the... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Fran
5.0 out of 5 stars EXCELLENT BOOK.
THEBOOK IT VERY INSIGHTFUL. I LOST MY MOTHER AT NINE AND STILL FEEL HER LOSS.

OLD BOOK BUT IN GOOD CONDITION.
Published 3 months ago by Violet
1.0 out of 5 stars Motherless Daughters
I haven't read this book, yet. I think that it pertains to daughters who have recently lost their mothers, not my situation.
Published 3 months ago by Marcia D. Worcester
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being a trained EMT and performing C.P.R on your own mom! Be the first to reply
Loss of mother due to psychological abandonment/lack of attatchment
My mother abandoned my sister and me when I was 4 and my sister was 10. We did see her some throughout childhood but she was an alcoholic and I feel pretty certain had a personality disorder. Five years ago she had a stroke and is now in a nursing home, no longer able to talk well enough to... Read more
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