Mother Tongue

Brynn isn’t sure if she’s happy with her life. Her husband Eric’s conservative and Bible-thumping beliefs grow more intense every day. Her best friend, Lisa, who desires Eric for herself, has just utterly humiliated Brynn at her daughter’s fourth birthday party. And while she loves her daughter, Jenny, she always thought there would be something more to life beyond the mundanities of motherhood.

When Brynn ends up in a coma after a traumatic fall, she wakes up speaking fluent French with a perfect accent. Everyone feels upended by this sudden change to their lives, but Brynn finally feels that sense of home she’s been searching for her whole life. In the years that pass after Brynn flees her family to begin a new life in France, dark secrets will be revealed, anxieties will turn into fanatical obsessions, and their lives will never be the same again, for better or for worse.

Mother Tongue is definitely the most unpredictable book I’ve read this year, from the beginning to its explosive ending, but in the best way possible. It is absolutely fascinating how Brynn finds herself in another language that feels more like her mother tongue than her first language. It nurtures her, comforts her when she is alone, and makes her stronger, as a mother would. But it is doubly intriguing and concerning that while Brynn is exploring newfound freedom, the people around her, including her now teenage daughter, are becoming more restricted and programmed by the abuse and dark side of language.

Naima Brown has written an addictive family drama that explores motherhood, gender expectations, religious and political zealotry, and the pursuit of freedom. But more than anything, Mother Tongue reveals to us the power of words – how they are used to control and bind us, how they influence us, and how they set us free.