A review by casskrug
The Abandoners by Begoña Gómez Urzaiz

4.0

in this essay collection, gomez urzaiz asks the question, “what kind of mother abandons her child?” and then outlines the various social, cultural, and economic reasons why this happens, albeit not often.

this is exactly the kind of essay collection i love - the author had a clear vision of what she wanted to explore and pulled in so many interesting female figures from literature, film, music, as well as the perspective of everyday women. she also provided her own insight as a mother herself, so we get a bit of personal writing in the mix too. i was unfamiliar with most of the women gomez urzaiz examined in the book, so i feel like i truly learned a lot.

the subject is such a gray area and i think gomez urzaiz highlighted a fear that a lot of people have surrounding whether or not to have kids - what if it’s not what i actually want? i really appreciated how, when possible, she provided the perspective of the children of the women in question. super interesting to see how each mother-child relationships were affected by the mother’s actions.

i really enjoyed gomez urzaiz’s writing style and am interested to read more from her!

thank you to netgalley and ww norton for the e-arc!