The Ridgefield Library and Books on the Common are pleased to welcome back author Elissa Altman who will talk about her new book Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing (Ballantine Hardcover / On Sale: August 6, 2019). In the book Altman asks the universal questions that have defined mothers and daughters from Demeter and Persephone to Debbie Reynolds and Carrie Fisher. How do you care for a mother you love, but don’t necessarily like? What are the rules—and limitations—of daughterly obligation and caregiving? Can it ever end well?

Elissa and Rita have forever struggled to find their place in each other's worlds. Rita, an overreaching, makeup-addicted, narcissistic Manhattan singer couldn't be more different from Elissa, her gay, taciturn New England writer daughter. Stuck in an outrageous maelstrom of codependency, mother and daughter cannot seem to extricate themselves from the center of each other's lives. MOTHERLAND is their universal story: a kaleidoscopic journey built on the ferocity of mother-daughter love, moral obligation, and the possibility and promise of healing.

Books will be available for sale and signing at the event.

Please register.