“Striking… Maiuri’s prose is empathetic and remarkable.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A stunning novel by a percipient and generous author. I was deeply moved by this book about motherhood, sisterhood, and friendship; about love that wounds and sorrow that shapes a life; about the pleasure and strain of a home. ” —Ayşegül Savaş, author of The Anthropologists

“I loved every sentence of this exquisite debut. Maiuri’s writing pulses with emotion and wisdom; it cuts deeply and swells to an ending that moved me to tears. Mother in the Dark is one of those rare novels that will stay with you for a very long time” —Sanaë Lemoine, author of The Margot Affair

“A gorgeous novel with profound insights into what keeps a family together and what it takes to shake off the stranglehold of the past, Mother in the Dark casts a riveting spell. You will relish every word.” —Daniel Loedel, author of Hades, Argentina

“Kayla Maiuri has written a freshly imagined, emotionally precise novel. Here is an honest book rich in detail and empathy. Here is an exciting new voice in fiction.” —Sam Lipsyte, author of The Ask 

“A masterfully written novel, alive and lyrical, a hypnotic rendering of the mess and the tenderness of family life.” —Claire Lombardo, author of The Most Fun We Ever Had

“Striking… Maiuri’s prose is empathetic and remarkable, a meditation on the kind of attention a girl can bestow upon her mother, even when unrequited.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Wrenching and poignant… Maiuri brings nuance to the heavy subject matter: inherited madness, fracturing family bonds, and resentment held in the body, balanced nicely with Anna’s strong narrative voice: ‘I hate that she’s so desperate for love,’ she says of Vera. Fans of Justin Torres’s We the Animals will find a lot to like.” —Publishers Weekly

“Mother in the Dark ruined a night of sleep as it sped towards its irresistible climax.” —The Millions

“Beautifully written and unsparing in its willingness to engage with all the ways that love and hurt are always and impossibly linked, Mother in the Dark is an evocative exploration of how we are both haunted and sustained by the people and the places that we’re from.” —Lynn Steger Strong, author of Want

“Mother in the Dark delivers a haunting story of the complex binds between mother and daughter, and how we are shaped by our families. Tender and unsparing, this is a novel to hold onto.” —Crystal Hana Kim, author of If You Leave Me

“There is much to admire in this beautifully written, unsentimental, deeply knowing novel. Maiuri is wise beyond her years, and fearless in her exploration of the ways that mothers and daughters are uniquely equipped to hurt each other.” —Elissa Schappell, author of Blueprints for Building Better Girls

“A tender and vulnerable story in the vein of memoirs like Educated and The Glass Castle, Maiuri’s debut novel peels back layers of multigenerational trauma in a complicated, dysfunctional family.” —Booklist

“A bleakly effective novel.” —Kirkus

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