Set in the late 1970s, Motherland: A Novel is a politically charged
tragi-comic tale told from the perspective of Jess, a teenager living
in a sleepy West Midlands town in Thatcherite Britain. Raised solely
by her radical socialist mother, Jess is torn between her hometown of
Tamworth and her ideological home in East Berlin.
It’s an ambitious coming-of-age novel from debut author Jo McMillan, which is wonderfully written and filled with quirky details and descriptions, but it’s not a particularly gripping or fast-paced read and the plot occasionally jumps around in a disorientating way.
What holds the book together is the relationship between Jess and her mother, and particularly the heart-wrenching belief they both share in the benevolence of the GDR State, despite the cruelty dealt to their own
personal happiness.
It’s a touching and poignant read, which uniquely explores this period in time in a way in which few other authors have attempted to.
