Five novels on motherhood and maternal fear

Kate Riordan is a British writer and journalist who worked for the Guardian and Time Out London.

Her new novel is The Heatwave.

[Q&A with Kate Riordan; The Page 69 Test: The Heatwave.]

At The Strand Magazine, Riordan tagged five "novels about maternal fear which challenge as much as they chill," including:

The Fifth Child by Doris Lessing

Published in 1988 and undoubtedly a classic of the genre of ambivalent mothers, Lessing’s fifth child – Ben – is described from the start in monstrous fashion, with his oddly-shaped head and yellowish skin. A changeling in a family which had been effortlessly harmonious before his arrival, he fights his way out of utero and bites his mother’s nipples until they’re black. As he grows older and stronger, animals are duly tortured and ultimately the decision is made to institutionalize him. Deeply unsettling right through to the twist at the end.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue