The Push

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A Good Morning America Book Club Pick!

A New York Times bestseller!

"Utterly addictive." —Paula Hawkins, author of The Girl on the Train

"Hooks you from the very first page and will have you racing to get to the end." —Good Morning America A tense, page-turning psychological drama about the making and breaking of a family — and a woman whose experience of motherhood is nothing at all what she hoped for — and everything she feared

Blythe Connor is determined that she will be the warm, comforting mother to her new baby Violet that she herself never had.

But in the thick of motherhood's exhausting early days, Blythe becomes convinced that something is wrong with her daughter — she doesn't behave like most children do.

Or is it all in Blythe's head? Her husband, Fox, says she's imagining things. The more Fox dismisses her fears, the more Blythe begins to question her own sanity, and the more we begin to question what Blythe is telling us about her life as well.

Then their son Sam is born — and with him, Blythe has the blissful connection she'd always imagined with her child. Even Violet seems to love her little brother. But when life as they know it is changed in an instant, the devastating fall-out forces Blythe to face the truth.

The Push is a tour de force you will read in a sitting, an utterly immersive novel that will challenge everything you think you know about motherhood, about what we owe our children, and what it feels like when women are not believed.

"This is a sterling addition to the burgeoning canon of bad-seed suspense, from an arrestingly original new voice." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review)

"Taut, chilling....Audrain has a gift for capturing the seemingly small moments that speak volumes about relationships." The New York Times Book Review

"Well thought out, carefully crafted, vividly realised and gripping.... The Push turbo-charges maternal anxieties with a fierce gothic energy." The Guardian

"[A] deft and immersive thriller... The Push is an ingenious reincarnation of that most forbidden of suspense narratives: the mommy-in-peril-from-her-own-monstrous-offspring." Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

"Both an absorbing thriller and an intense, profound look at the heartbreaking ways motherhood can go wrong, this is sure to provoke discussion." Booklist

"With its riveting prose and deep convictions, Ashley Audrain's The Push had me in its clutches from the first page. Audrain's astute portrayal of motherhood was unsettling in its insights, yet highly entertaining on the page. Complex, nuanced, and unflinching, I inhaled this debut in one sitting." Karma Brown, bestselling author of Recipe for a Perfect Wife

"The Push was a poetic, propulsive read that set my nerves jangling in both horror and recognition. I read it in one sitting and it stayed with me for days afterwards. Not to be missed." Lisa Jewell, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Then She Was Gone

"Starkly original and compulsively readable, Ashley Audrain's The Push is a deep dive into the darkest nooks and crannies of motherhood. Raw, visceral, and often disturbing, this is an intense psychological drama that will be embraced by serious book clubs and fans of Lionel Shriver's We Need to Talk about Kevin." Kristin Hannah, #1 New York Times bestselling author

Ashley Audrain's debut novel The Push was a New York Times, Sunday Times and #1 international bestseller, and a Good Morning America book club pick. It has sold in 40 territories, and a limited television series is currently in development. She previously worked as the publicity director of Penguin Books Canada, and prior to that, worked in public relations. She lives in Toronto, where she and her partner are raising their two young children. She is working on her second novel.