The Other Mother

Silje Marie and her wife Helene have two young sons, Olav and Henry—each conceived with the help of a different sperm donor. When Helene takes the children on summer vacation, Silje Marie stays behind to pack up their family home ahead of a renovation. But the solitude offers more than just time to sort through old belongings—it opens up a space for all the thoughts she's kept buried.

Alone for the first time in years, the house still and silent, Silje Marie begins to question the choices that have shaped their family. She is haunted by the forbidden thought that she feels a different bond to each of her sons: an unspoken distinction she cannot ignore. And then there is the other mother: a woman she has met in secret, whose son bears an uncanny resemblance to Henry.

The Other Mother is a fearless and darkly absorbing portrait of a woman in crisis. In spare, deeply affecting prose, Tina Åmodt explores the complexities of parenthood, biology and queer lives—and the enduring question of what it means to be a mother.