GloBooks Review: Meera Syal’s House of Hidden Mothers

Punjab2000’s Amrit Matharu joins new online book forum, GloBooks.net – showcasing the best in new international fiction releases. GloBooks is your destination-point for foreign fiction, international fiction news and brand new trending fiction!

Meera Syal released her long-awaited third novel House of Hidden Mothers this year after Anita and Me and Life Isn’t all Ha Ha Hee Hee which came to the scene in the late 90’s. And here’s what Amrit had to say… 

“Meera Syal immerses us in the tale of a rarely spoken subject: surrogacy. We are introduced to a forty-something has been mother trying for her second child. Shyama’s character reminds the reader that life isn’t always kind; escaping a troublesome marriage when her first born was young and now living opposite her ageing parents. Syal paints a picture of Shyama’s desperation to give her new life partner, Toby a child together whilst compromising old friendships, and the relationship with her existing nineteen-year-old daughter.

Syal covers many themes in her latest book including cross-cultural relationships, motherhood, feminism, family dynamics and of course not forgetting international surrogacy. As a young woman in my twenties enjoying my life and career, family planning and the focus on surrogacy is far off my agenda. Although, reading House of Hidden Mothers has given me a refreshed outlook on the issues around pregnancy and motherhood. Whilst I would love to become a mother one day with my own children, the thoughts around parenting and the process is something I’ve always found quite daunting…”

Read Amrit’s full review at GloBooks.net