This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Free Book Program, which is open to all readers and is completely free. The author will provide you with a free copy of their book in exchange for an honest review. You and the author will discuss what sites you will post your review to and what kind of copy of the book you would like to receive (eBook, PDF, Word, paperback, etc.). To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Review Exchange Program, which is open to all authors and is completely free. Simply put, you agree to provide an honest review an author's book in exchange for the author doing the same for you. What sites your reviews are posted on (B&N, Amazon, etc.) and whether you send digital (eBook, PDF, Word, etc.) or hard copies of your books to each other for review is up to you. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email, and be sure to describe your book or include a link to your Readers' Favorite review page or Amazon page.
This author participates in the Readers' Favorite Book Donation Program, which was created to help nonprofit and charitable organizations (schools, libraries, convalescent homes, soldier donation programs, etc.) by providing them with free books and to help authors garner more exposure for their work. This author is willing to donate free copies of their book in exchange for reviews (if circumstances allow) and the knowledge that their book is being read and enjoyed. To begin, click the purple email icon to send this author a private email. Be sure to tell the author who you are, what organization you are with, how many books you need, how they will be used, and the number of reviews, if any, you would be able to provide.
Reviewed by Les Wiggill for Readers' Favorite
In Motherhood, Siamak Vakili tells the story of a young woman, Ms. Shahverdi, whose life-long dream was to become a medical doctor. In spite of growing up in a very poor home, she got married to a respectable man while she was studying, fell pregnant soon thereafter, and gave birth to a son. She achieved her ambition of becoming a doctor, but in order to do so, she ran away from her family, including her husband and their newborn son. Not even her own mother knew where she had disappeared to. One stormy night in very curious circumstances, a 5-year-old boy lands up in Dr. Shahverdi’s apartment and from then on, her well-organized life is thrown into turmoil and confusion. She is faced with the reality that she had abandoned her own son five years previously and now has to take care of a 5-year-old boy that has literally dropped from the sky, who cannot remember anything about his past or who his parents are. Being confronted with this predicament, she decides to call her mother for the first time since leaving Tehran five years previously, and this leads to a remarkable turn of events.
Siamak Vakili uses beautiful imagery to describe Dr. Shahverdi’s journey in Motherhood to reach the place where she is prepared to accept the responsibilities of motherhood and she starts to make a connection with children for the first time. She clearly had no maternal instincts at all when she gave birth to her son. Instead, her ambitions of becoming a medical doctor overrode all other considerations. The story is told with sensitivity, giving a clear progression of her emotional struggles until she eventually reaches the place of genuine desire to become a mother. The translation into English by Zubin Mistry is a bit problematic but in spite of that, the story is enjoyable, intriguing, and reads very well.
