A Refinery29 Best Book of 2017
“Mesmerizing and quietly revealing, Sorell’s memorable novel expertly weaves Elsie’s search for answers about her origins with her own journey of healing.”
— Publishers Weekly
“Sorell covers a lot of ground — physically, emotionally, spiritually and psychologically — and deftly weaves it all into a complex plot. The loaded narrative, tide-like in its advancing and receding movement, runs over an undercurrent of self-deprecating sarcasm and pity born of hurt and emotionally fueled assumptions. In other words, the stuff many mothers and daughters allow themselves to get caught up in.”
— The Toronto Star
“A fascinating look at a unique and fractured parent-child relationship…engaging and tense.”
— Kirkus Reviews
"Sorell reveals herself as an author to watch... Ultimately, the sinister romance here, combined with an unflinching exploration of what can contribute to a mental breakdown, left me wanting to read whatever Sorell writes next."
— The Globe & Mail
"Whom do we really belong to and why? This dark, gorgeous jewel of a novel probes the secrets we keep and the complex ties of family, love, and loss. Shattering and brilliant, this marks the debut of an astonishing talent."
— Caroline Leavitt, New York Times–bestselling author of Cruel Beautiful World and Pictures of You
"Riveting."
— Good Housekeeping
“A stunning debut, Mothers and Other Strangers grips from page one. It’s a perfect weave of suspense and of insight about how people love and hurt one another, and sometimes heal, and sometimes cannot. I highly recommend this novel and look forward—impatiently—to Gina Sorell’s future work.”
— Robin Black, author of Life Drawing
"Mothers and Other Strangers is a memorable first novel, a delightfully twisty
gothic with the strange and eerie urgency of a fable or a dream."
— Dan Chaon, author of Ill Will and You Remind Me of Me
“A young woman’s investigation of her mother’s mysterious past uncovers disturbing revelations about love, family and the fragile bonds that both connect us and tear us apart. An absorbing, sensitive novel that confirms the troubling reality that it’s often the people closest to us who do the most harm.”
— Elizabeth Brundage, author of All Things Cease to Appear
"From the first shocking sentence of Gina Sorell's Mothers and Other Strangers, I was hooked on the twisting ride of a woman who receives an inheritance of secrets, debt, and the mess left behind. With stunning prose and the danger of a thriller, Sorell reaches deep into a broken heart and finds what's still beating. I am a fan!"
— Susan Henderson, author of Up from the Blue
“This compelling debut reveals the astronomical cost of harboring family secrets. Somehow Gina Sorell has managed to craft both a meditation on the messiness of mother-daughter bonds and a mystery that will keep you turning pages until the wee hours of the morning.”
— Michelle Brafman, author of Bertrand Court and Washing the Dead
“This book grabs you at the opening lines and won’t let you go. Elsie dreams of fire and doesn’t fully understand how deep her mother’s ties to a group called the Seekers was until her mother’s death. The discovery of a bundle of photos and a priceless ring take Elsie from her home in Canada to Africa on a journey that leads her to the past she never knew she had. A stunning, rich, and heartfelt debut of suspense.”
— Shannon Rose, Literati Bookstore in Ann Arbor, MD
"Gina Sorell has written a complex mystery of the human heart in her poignant debut novel, Mothers and Other Strangers, exploring how the emotional riddle of our parents shapes our lives well into adulthood. To paraphrase Philip Larkin, they screw you up, your mom and dad. Sometimes they intend to hurt you as deeply as they’ve been hurt. The quest in this wise novel is to realize that the path to healing a childhood wound passes through understanding the strangeness of one’s parents, and accepting it, or not. This book is a must read for anyone who has struggled to understand their own parents.”
— Robert Eversz, author of Shooting Elvis
accepting it, or not. This book is a must read for anyone who has struggled to understand their own parents.”
— Robert Eversz, author of Shooting Elvis
