Search
Log in
  • Home

  • Categories

  • Audiobooks

  • E-books

  • Magazines

  • For kids

  • Top lists

  • Help

  • Download app

  • Use campaign code

  • Redeem gift card

  • Try free now
  • Log in
  • Language

    🇸🇪 Sverige

    • SE
    • EN

    🇧🇪 Belgique

    • FR
    • EN

    🇩🇰 Danmark

    • DK
    • EN

    🇩🇪 Deutschland

    • DE
    • EN

    🇪🇸 España

    • ES
    • EN

    🇫🇷 France

    • FR
    • EN

    🇳🇱 Nederland

    • NL
    • EN

    🇳🇴 Norge

    • NO
    • EN

    🇦🇹 Österreich

    • AT
    • EN

    🇨🇭 Schweiz

    • DE
    • EN

    🇫🇮 Suomi

    • FI
    • EN
  1. Books
  2. Fiction
  3. Contemporary fiction

Read and listen for free for 42 days!

Cancel anytime

Try free now
3.9(74)

The School for Good Mothers: A Novel

Longlisted for the PEN/Hemingway Award for Debut Novel

Longlisted for the 2023 Carnegie Medal for Excellence

Shortlisted for The Center for Fiction 2022 First Novel Prize

Selected as One of Barack Obama’s Favorite Books of 2022!

In this New York Times bestseller and Today show Read with Jenna Book Club Pick, one lapse in judgement lands a young mother in a government reform program where custody of her child hangs in the balance, in this “surreal” (People), “remarkable” (Vogue), and “infuriatingly timely” (The New York Times Book Review) debut novel.

Frida Liu is struggling. She doesn’t have a career worthy of her Chinese immigrant parents’ sacrifices. She can’t persuade her husband, Gust, to give up his wellness-obsessed younger mistress. Only with Harriet, their cherubic daughter, does Frida finally attain the perfection expected of her. Harriet may be all she has, but she is just enough.

Until Frida has a very bad day.

The state has its eye on mothers like Frida. The ones who check their phones, letting their children get injured on the playground; who let their children walk home alone. Because of one moment of poor judgement, a host of government officials will now determine if Frida is a candidate for a Big Brother-like institution that measures the success or failure of a mother’s devotion.

Faced with the possibility of losing Harriet, Frida must prove that a bad mother can be redeemed. That she can learn to be good.

An “intense” (Oprah Daily), “captivating” (Today) page-turner that is also a transgressive novel of ideas about the perils of “perfect” upper-middle class parenting; the violence enacted upon women by both the state and, at times, one another; the systems that separate families; and the boundlessness of love, The School for Good Mothers introduces, in Frida, an everywoman for the ages. Using dark wit to explore the pains and joys of the deepest ties that bind us, Chan has written a modern literary classic.


Author:

  • Jessamine Chan

Narrator:

  • Catherine Ho

Format:

  • Audiobook
  • E-book

Duration:

  • 11 h 56 min
  • 251 pages

Language:

English

Categories:

  • Fiction
  • Contemporary fiction
  • Sci-Fi
  • Contemporary science fiction
  • Sci-Fi
  • Utopias and dystopias

3.9

74 ratings

Lena

2023-11-19

Riktigt bra och sorglig dystopi. Jag kunde inte sluta lyssna.

To write a review you need to download the app


More by Jessamine Chan

Skip the list
  1. Skolan för goda mödrar

    Jessamine Chan

    audiobookbook
  2. La escuela de las buenas madres

    Jessamine Chan

    audiobook

Others have also read

Skip the list
  1. The Laughter : A Novel

    Sonora Jha

    audiobook
  2. Pin

    Andrew Neiderman

    book
  3. Camp Zero : A Novel

    Michelle Min Sterling

    audiobookbook
  4. The Star Child : Longlisted for The Sunday Times SA Fiction Prize

    Unathi Magubeni

    book
  5. The Proposal

    Myung-hoon Bae

    book
  6. Angel of the North : Who will help a nurse in war? A heart-wrenching family saga about hope during WWII

    Annie Wilkinson

    book
  7. Strangers at the Feast: A Novel

    Jennifer Vanderbes

    book
  8. Exit A : A Novel

    Anthony Swofford

    book
  9. VenCo : A Novel

    Cherie Dimaline

    audiobook
  10. A Dorset Girl

    Janet Woods

    book
  11. No More Parades

    Ford Madox Ford

    book
  12. The Way We Live Now

    Anthony Trollope

    book

  • 3 books

    Jessamine Chan

    Jessamine Chan’s short stories have appeared in Tin House and Epoch. A former reviews editor at Publishers Weekly, she holds an MFA from Columbia University’s School of the Arts and a BA from Brown University. Her work has received support from the Elizabeth George Foundation, the Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, the Wurlitzer Foundation, the Jentel Foundation, the Kimmel Harding Nelson Center, the Anderson Center, the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and the Ragdale Foundation. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband and daughter.

    Read more

Help and contact


About us

  • Our story
  • Career
  • Press
  • Accessibility
  • Partner with us
  • Investor relations
  • Instagram
  • Facebook

Explore

  • Categories
  • Audiobooks
  • E-books
  • Magazines
  • For kids
  • Top lists

Popular categories

  • Crime
  • Biographies and reportage
  • Fiction
  • Feel-good and romance
  • Personal development
  • Children's books
  • True stories
  • Sleep and relaxation

Nextory

Copyright © 2025 Nextory AB

Privacy Policy · Terms ·
Excellent4.3 out of 5