By Bibiana Mas

It was written in the stars that, one day, I was going to publish Mothers Don't. It had to be. It was all planned (in a space-time that my eyes still can’t see), even long before 3TimesRebel Press was created. I have no doubt about that. More than two years ago I went to a presentation of this book in Barcelona (one day I will explain something really beautiful that happened in there, but you’ll have to wait a bit for that). That splendid morning, under the Mediterranean sun, I chatted with Katixa Agirre and then with her publisher in Spanish, Sol Salama of Tránsito Editorial. And I said to her: ‘When I grow up I want to be like you’. After a few seconds I regretted having said those words: that amazing publisher is much younger than I am, and those words I said made little sense - apart from making me feel ridiculous. But, you know what? I really meant them. I knew I wanted to follow a similar path to hers, I knew that Sol’s example of a (very) brave woman would be key for me.

But let me focus on the book. What I really want to do here is to talk about Mothers Don't. Though I don't want to give you any spoilers. I just want to tell you that every time I read it, it makes me feel like I’m stirring all the mud that is asleep in my guts. And I think I've read it at least 10 times. So take my words to heart. Mothers Don't is a book that touches each and every string inside me: motherhood and that great shadow that accompanies it. A shadow that we all carry but at the same time we all hide. 

Let me tell you one secret: motherhood comes at a price: your own freedom. So, what can I say? It would be great if you were up to reading it. And then, we’ll have plenty of time to talk about this terrible not-so-little secret.

‘I was those hands. The hands that drowned the babies. The mother’s hands. The hands that had no mercy.’

 ‘A lover while pregnant, I broke a big taboo there, didn’t I? Maybe the biggest taboo.’

A mother kills her twins. Another woman, the narrator, is about to give birth. She is a writer and realises that she knows the woman who killed the children. An obsession is triggered. She takes a leave of absence, not to nurture her baby, but to write. To investigate the hidden truth behind the crime.

This book is halfway between a thriller and a journalistic chronicle. A novel about the primal guilt that comes with being a mother.

Available from 14th July 2022