Mother Country (2002) is a novel by Libby Purves about a young American computer expert who goes in search of the relatives of his biological father, a teenage heroin addict in 1970s London when she had him who was pronounced an unfit mother and who died soon after giving birth to him. Raised by his paternal grandparents, the young man has never been to England again after being carried off to the United States by his father, who also died young.
Mother Country explores the culture clash between the two nations, drug addiction and rehabilitation, family secrets, and the will to move on in life.
Famous quotes containing the words mother and/or country:
“The good enough mother, owing to her deep empathy with her infant, reflects in her face his feelings; this is why he sees himself in her face as if in a mirror and finds himself as he sees himself in her. The not good enough mother fails to reflect the infant’s feelings in her face because she is too preoccupied with her own concerns, such as her worries over whether she is doing right by her child, her anxiety that she might fail him.”
—Bruno Bettelheim (20th century)
“Tell [the next Miss America] she is taking on a great responsibility. A responsibility to herself, to her people, to the Miss American Pageant, the people of Atlantic City, her state and her nation. Tell her the country and the world will judge America by her.”
—Colleen Kay Hutchins (b. c. 1932)