Mothers of Fate

From award-winning novelist Lynne Hugo, Mothers of Fate, a masterful story of three women and a young man navigating the complexities of adoption and its aftermath that raises a question for every reader. Does fate direct our lives--or do our own choices?

"Secrets emerge, relationships fracture, but out of the wreckage, Hugo has built a moving, extraordinary story of hope. I loved it." -- Caroline Leavitt, New York Times bestselling author of Days of Wonder

Deana Wilkes, who's needed braces to walk since a disabling accident long ago, seeks out Monica Connell, an attorney, to find the child she was forced to relinquish in a closed adoption thirty years ago. Back then, Deana believed that the passion between her and Tony, her married boss, meant they were destined for each other. It was wrong, Deana knew, but believed it was also meant to be. Tony's long gone now, and Deana's constructed a life out of the wreck of their affair. She's ready to finally make things right and meet her son.

But Monica's wife, Angela, was adopted herself after an early history of abandonment and foster homes. Devoted to the memory of her parents, she's certain that closed adoptions need to remain closed unless the adoptee seeks contact. She draws a red line: Monica cannot take the case. Monica, though, feels compelled to help Deana by her own complicated history, one she's never revealed to Angela. As this wedge between them hardens, will Angie or Monica have the best custody claim to their own beloved adopted baby?

Nobody knows what Deana's son wants, including his adoptive parents. Not even redheaded Suzanne, and the possibility of love. After all, as an Iraq war vet and a long-distance truck driver, Daniel knows everything about hitting the road to avoid the confusion that's plagued his life.

Lynne Hugo's thirteenth novel takes on the reverberating effects of sexual power dynamics in the workplace and vividly portrays lingering psychological wounds as characters struggle to reconcile self-determination with the sacrifices love demands.

Author: Lynne Hugo
Publisher: Blank Slate Press
Published: 04/22/2025
Pages: 305
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.95lbs
Size: 8.50h x 5.50w x 0.83d
ISBN: 9781943075911

About the Author
Lynne Hugo is an American author whose roots are in New England. A National Endowment For The Arts Fellowship recipient, she has also received repeat individual artist grants from the Ohio Arts Council and the Kentucky Foundation for Women. Her publications include ten novels, as well as a memoir, Where the Trail Grows Faint, which won the Riverteeth Creative Nonfiction Book Prize. She has also published two books of poetry and a children's book. She lives with her husband, a photographer, in the Midwest. The couple have two children, three grandchildren, and an energetic beagle/Lab mix who excels at barking, retrieving tennis balls, and terrorizing squirrels. Ms. Hugo has taught creative writing to hundreds of schoolchildren through the Ohio Arts Council's renowned Arts in Education program. She holds a Bachelor's degree from Connecticut College, and a Master's from Miami University. When an editor asked her to describe herself as a writer, she responded: "I write in black Wal-Mart capri sweatpants. They don't start out as capris, but I routinely shrink them in the drier by accident. And I always buy black because it doesn't show where I've wiped the chocolate off my hands. Now that my son and daughter are grown, my previous high grade of 'below average' in Domestic Achievement has dropped somewhat. But I'm less guilty about it now. I lose myself in crafting language by a window with birdfeeders hanging in the branches of a Chinese elm towering over the house. When I come up for air, I hike by the ponds and along the river in a nearby forest with my beloved Lab. My husband, with whom I planted that elm as a bare root sapling, joins us when he can."