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The Mother-in-Law Paperback – 27 August 2019
Sally Hepworth
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Product details
- Publisher : Pan Australia (27 August 2019)
- Language : English
- Paperback : 352 pages
- ISBN-10 : 1760781126
- ISBN-13 : 978-1760781125
- Dimensions : 12.9 x 2.5 x 19.6 cm
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Best Sellers Rank:
8,928 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- 1,113 in Family Life Fiction (Books)
- 1,241 in Contemporary Literature & Fiction
- 4,560 in Mysteries (Books)
- Customer Reviews:
Product description
Review
Book Description
From the Publisher
About the Author
Sally Hepworth has lived around the world, spending extended periods in Singapore, the U.K. and Canada, where she worked in event management and Human Resources. While on maternity leave, Sally finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to write, the result of which was Love Like the French, published in Germany in 2014. While pregnant with her second child, Sally wrote The Secrets of Midwives, published worldwide in English, as well as in France, Italy, Germany, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in 2015. A novel about three generations of midwives, The Secrets of Midwives asks readers what makes a mother and what role biology plays in the making and binding of a family.
The Secrets of Midwives has been labelled "enchanting" by The Herald Sun and "smart and engaging" by Publisher's Weekly and New York Times bestselling authors Liane Moriarty and Emily Giffin have praised Sally's debut English language novel as "women's fiction at its finest" and "totally absorbing".
Sally has continued writing about women's issues and family ties in The Things We Keep (published February 2016), The Mother's Promise (March 2017), The Family Next Door (March 2018) and The Mother-in-Law (February 2019).
Sally lives in Melbourne, Australia with her husband and three children.
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Customer reviews
Top reviews from Australia
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The book is written in then and now sequences and through flashbacks we understand where Lucy and Diana are coming from. Diana didn’t have an easy time as a young woman and had to toughen up quickly. As is always the case, nature and nurture form character that in turn affects future generations. One excellent aspect of the novel is that the relationship between Lucy and Diana evolves after reaching a low point, becoming nurturing and even affectionate. The family faces various dramas but the big one comes with Diana’s death. It looks like euthanasia but is it? Certain things don’t add up and the police become involved.
The novel starts OK and improves as it goes along. I have a problem when a character says “I have done xyz” when people would normally say “I’ve ...”. While we’re being picky, I don’t think a woman of Diana’s vintage would say “There’s two pieces of advice ...”. She would say “There’re ...” or write it out in full: “There are ...”. Plural nouns need plural verbs. Yes I know “There’s” is used all the time now but not so much by older folk who learnt grammar. Good story though: well-plotted with well-realised characters who evoke an emotional response.
I loved the story but even more, I loved how relatable this one was. The kids especially, behave exactly like me and the family interactions are the same too (IPad, NOW!). The Brighton and Sorrento houses are all too familiar(sadly not in my family).
Finally, I enjoyed seeing the mother in law relationship from both perspectives. As always, insightful and heartwarming.
It really shows how we never really know someone's intentions, and how we judge (and MISJUDGE) people far too easily.
It has honestly given me a different outlook, and I spoke with my husband, and children about it, along with my usual book loving friends!!
I believe it is being made into a tv series/show, and I am so interested to see the interpretation.
I cannot recommend this book enough!!!
The story was well written and loved how I was surprised with the ending. Which was great as I usually figure it out, but I didn’t with this one.
Looking forward to book no 6 now.
It's probably a typical mother-in-law story which is a bit sad really as mine was a nice lady.
Well worth a read though.
Top reviews from other countries

When Diana is found dead, the family comes under suspicion.
The author writes well but the story is too long and has a lot of unnecessary detail. It is more of a family story than a crime thriller. It is easy to guess who the perpetrator is and the ending is low key. I would probably buy another book by the author.



To further ram home what a horrible person Diana is, the author has her turning off her grandson’s baby monitor (didn’t want to make the baby weak and dependent) and being so neglectful when babysitting that her granddaughter ends up with a fractured skull. In the hospital Lucy attacks Diana, knocking her the floor so that she suffers a concussion. Later, one of the nurses tells Lucy that the staff consider her a “hero” for this action! Honestly, could you imagine any sensible person talking like this? Nurses must hate their mothers in law too.
It’s all pretty silly, with ridiculous cardboard cutout characters and a denouement that is beyond belief. A waste of time, in my view.
Just for the record, I adored my mother in law. She’s dead now, but was one of the kindest, nicest people I ever met. Just saying.
