"Celebrated English author Edward St. Aubyn's brilliant and scathingly witty family portrait examines the shifting allegiances between parents, children, husbands, and wives." "The novel's perspective carousels between each member of the Melrose family - the same family featured in St. Aubyn's trilogy Some Hope - starting with Robert, who provides an exceptionally droll and convincing account of being born; to Patrick, a hilariously churlish husband who has been sexually abandoned by his wife in favor of motherhood; to Mary, who's consumed by her children and an overwhelming desire to not repeat the mistakes of her own mother. All the while, St. Aubyn examines the web of false promises that entangle this once illustrious family, whose last vestige of wealth - an old house in the South of France - is about to be permanently donated by Patrick's mother to a new-age foundation." "An up-to-the-minute dissection of the mores of child-rearing, marriage, adultery, and assisted suicide, Mother's Milk showcases St. Aubyn's luminous and acidic prose - and his masterful ability to combine the most excruciating pain with the driest comedy. Once Mother's Milk is absorbed into the bloodstream of American culture, postpartum depression will never be the same again."--BOOK JACKET.… (more)