Naima Brown
Mother Tongue
“A mother’s love is supposed to be immutable. What happens when you lose your language, maybe your mind? This is a story with guts that will charm and alarm in equal measure. Naima Brown is one of our most interesting storytellers and Mother Tongue should go straight to the top of your to-be-read pile.”
Pan Macmillan, 2025
What if being true to yourself means hurting everyone around you?
Brynn is a claustrophobic suburban mother on the brink . . .
Eric, her husband, is transforming in dark and dangerous ways . . .
Their daughter, Jenny, can't fathom the storm barrelling towards her . . .
When Brynn awakes from a coma speaking fluent French, she seizes the opportunity to start a new life in Paris, a seismic personal transformation that leaves a slew of shattered lives in its wake.
Darkly funny and profoundly insightful, Mother Tongue challenges our expectations of motherhood and our beliefs about women's lives. It is at once an exhilarating tale of escape and a warning about the cost of renewal.
About the Author
Naima Brown holds degrees in Middle Eastern Studies, Anthropology and Religious Studies. Her essays have appeared in Vogue Australia, the Guardian Australia, and more. She wrote, along with Melissa Doyle, the non-fiction book How to Age Against the Machine. She has spent over a decade working in news, current affairs and documentary - save for her brief stint in reality TV, which inspired her first novel, The Shot. She was born and raised in Northern California before living and working in Yemen and Afghanistan, and now lives in the Northern Rivers of New South Wales with her husband and her dog. Mother Tongue is her second novel.