The Push

By: Ashley Audrain

Narrated by: Marin Ireland

Length: 8 hrs and 38 mins

Publisher's summary

INSTANT INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

WINNER of the 2022 Crime Writers of Canada Best First Crime Novel

SHORTLISTED for the 2022 Rakuten Kobo Emerging Writer Prize

“Utterly addictive.” —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

“Written with an unflinching eye and a stylistically sharp, tight economy The Push is a single-sitting read, as suspenseful as any thriller, as thoughtful as any literary novel, with an almost physical force behind each of its turns and revelations.” —Toronto Star

A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family, and about a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for, and everything she feared.

Blythe Connor is determined to be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby, Violet, that she never had.

But in the thick of motherhood’s exhausting early days, Blythe doesn’t find the connection with her daughter she expected. She’s convinced something is wrong with Violet—she is distant, rejects affection, and becomes increasingly disruptive at preschool.

Or is it all in Blythe’s head? Her husband, Fox, says she’s imagining things. Fox doesn’t see what she sees; he sees a wife who is struggling to cope with the day-to-day challenges of being amother. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

Then, their son, Sam, is born—and with him, Blythe has the natural maternal connection she’d always dreamed of. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fallout forces Blythe to face the truth.

The Push is a rare and extraordinary gift to readers: an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, about what really happens behind the closed doors of even the most perfect-looking families and about what it feels like when women are not believed.

©2021 Ashley Audrain (P)2021 Viking

Critic reviews

2022, Kobo Emerging Writer Prize, Short-listed

2022, The Crime Writers of Canada Awards of Excellence - Best Crime Novel, Winner

“[A] taut, tense thriller . . . [and] chilling debut.” (The New York Times)

“Audrain cleverly examines and exploits women’s near-universal anxiety that they won’t measure up to some internalized standard of maternal perfection dictated by society. . . But what makes it stand out from the rest is Audrain’s nuanced understanding of how women’s voices are discounted, how a thousand little slights can curdle a solid marriage and—in defiance of maternal taboos—how mothers really feel, sometimes, toward difficult children. . . . The Push [is] more than a novel of suspense, the sum of its parts speaking to the burdens we all carry, whether we are mothers or simply children of women who did the best they could, however far their best efforts may have fallen short.” (Los Angeles Times)

Challenging but necessary

What a story! I've been seeking novels about difficult motherhood & this addressed that as well as a myriad of connected issues. I'm reeling.
Ashley Audrain addresses motherhood sans the saintly expectations the world forces on the relationship between all mothers & their children. She made me wonder about the mothers of famous sociopaths & psychopaths. Did they see it coming? Was it generational trauma or just bad seed? Will we ever know?
Trigger warning if you've had an neglectful parent.

Infuriating abrupt end

I listened to the first hour of this book and could not get interested in it so I returned it. I had forgotten the title so I accidently purchased it again a few months later. Again the beginning was an unusual start to a book, but I was busy doing something else while listening so I got past that part. The writer breaks the conventional rules of writing and if you like this kind of "artsy" approach then this may appeal to you; thus the great reviews from the critics. I thought the themes she explored came off as very realistic and in this way it was brilliant. However at the end of the day, I could not give the book 5 stars as the way she structured it did not feel right for the story. In my opinion she took her artistic choices too far! This story has a beginning middle and not really much of an end. It spend to much time leaving the reader in the dark and not giving you the information you need to really enjoy the story. The beginning is slow and offers no context! Once past the first hour it becomes more interesting. You spend the rest of the time trying to figure out if the main characters has mental health issue or if she is being made to feel crazy. The story takes you back and forth and in that sense it is brilliant. Here is where the rub comes for me, I like my stories to wrap up at the end. This one wraps up nothing and the end is about 15 minutes long!