Mothers and Daughters by Kate Long

Reviewed by Emma Hagestadt

After the The Bad Mother's Handbook, Kate Long's highly readable family dramas have long since outgrown their cheery chick-lit packaging. Her latest book gets to the heart of a very contemporary crisis - how grandparents fare in the aftermath of divorce. Carol, the novel's narrator, married young to the philandering Phil. When her own daughter, Jaz, faces a similar situation, she can't stand to see history repeat itself. In a clumsy attempt to bring the warring couple back together, she ends up losing contact with her cherished grandson but gaining a new suave love interest. A storyteller in the Joanna Trollope league, Long writes astutely and comically about the complexities of motherhood and the second chance offered by granny-dom.