Tap cover to enlarge

Mother's Milk

Published
Oct 2005
Main Genre
Literary Literary
Rating
Pages
680
Series

About This Book

"[An] elegant and witty satire on the dissatisfactions of family life . . . told in a fresh, acerbic way." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

Now a five-part Showtime series Starring Benedict Cumberbatch and Blythe Danner


Man Booker–shortlisted Mother's Milk, the fourth installment in Edward St. Aubyn's wonderful, wry, and profound Patrick Melrose Cycle, sees Patrick as a lawyer, married, with a five-year-old child and another on the way.


The novel shifts points of view from Patrick—furious over his mother's decision to sell their mansion in the South of France to a ridiculous New Age hippie—to Patrick's wife, overburdened by motherhood, to Patrick's mother, growing senile and despondent, and even to Patrick's young son Robert, who reflects with hilarious and disturbing clarity on the moments of his birth.


"Vividly captures how the family members' roles shift with the birth of the second son and the deterioration of Patrick's mother." —The New Yorker
Praise for the Patrick Melrose series

"A masterwork for the twenty-first century." —Alice Sebold, author of The Lovely Bones

"Gorgeous, golden prose." —Lev Grossman, #1 New York Times–bestselling author of The Magician

"On every page of St. Aubyn's work is a sentence or a paragraph that prompts a laugh, or a moment of enriched comprehension." —James Wood, The New Yorker

"A portrait of a man that feels more alive and true than nearly any I can think of in literature." —Ann Patchett, The Guardian

"Brilliant." —Bret Easton Ellis


"Intoxicatingly witty." —The New York Review of Books

Series Placement

Genres & Themes

Subgenres

Buy This Book

Formats & Editions

Browse the different covers, formats, and publication history for this title.

Paperback

Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Dec 2006 Open City Books ISBN 1890447420
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Paperback
Jan 2007 Picador ISBN 0330435914
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Feb 2012 Picador ISBN 0312429967
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Feb 2012 Pan Books (UK) ISBN 1447202791
Buy
Paperback edition cover
Trade Paperback
Apr 2012 Pan Books (UK) ISBN 144720302X
Buy

Hardcover

Hardcover edition cover
Hardcover
First Edition Oct 2005 Open City Books ISBN 1890447404
Buy
Hardcover edition cover
Hardcover
Mar 2008 Open City Books ISBN 033045076X
Buy
Hardcover edition cover
Hardcover
Nov 2020 Picador ISBN 1250769167
Buy

eBook

eBook edition cover
eBook
Feb 2012 Picador ISBN 1743291620
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
Feb 2012 Picador ISBN 0330531360
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
Feb 2012 Picador ISBN B00603QS8O
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
Nov 2012 Picador ISBN 1466828188
Buy
eBook edition cover
eBook
Nov 2013 Picador ISBN 1250206553
Buy

Audio

Audio edition cover
Audible
Nov 2013 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd ISBN B00EPO6WKE
Buy