Even the best mother-daughter relationship has its challenges. But take one that’s not the best and add to it a secretive husband and father and a troubling memory, and you have the makings of The Red Kitchen—a memoir full of humor, grit, honesty, love, and reconciliation. As an adult, a summer in Africa allows Barbara to live without labels—wife, mother, daughter, sister—and become the woman she wants to be: funny, compassionate, complex, and often flawed.

For her mother, Em, it takes the end her unhappy fifty-year marriage to have the freedom to come into her own. In her daughter, Em finds a compassionate confidante and moves out into a bigger world.

By Barbara reaching out to her mother and her mother reaching back, they bring about a longed-for reconciliation and loving relationship that at times neither one thought possible.

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The Red Kitchen

The Red Kitchen Book Club Questions PDF