"Ava, an adjunct art-history professor whose research and writing have been stymied by her life as a wife and mother in LA, joins her Hollywood film producer husband on a summer shoot in Bulgaria. During the demanding production schedule, Ava is mostly solo-parenting their young son and 13-year-old daughter, who is on the cusp of rebellion and sexual knowledge. In a chance encounter in Sofia, Ava reconnects with her fierce feminist mentor from college and is drawn into a circle of women who are reenacting Greco-Roman female rites of initiation based on the Eleusinian Mysteries. Ava's own research into those rites comes to life through Astra, a parallel mother in 5th-century BC Athens, whose story counterpoints and dovetails with Ava's, as Landau explores the eternal stages of womanhood across time. In The Mother of All Things, she delivers a sharply contemporary, relatable yet at times surreal tale of a wife and mother coming to terms with her evolving sense of responsibility to her children and husband, to her creative life, and to herself"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.