In this dark gem of a book by the author of The Kiss, acomplex mother-daughter relationship precipitates a journey throughdepression to greater understanding, acceptance, freedom, andlove,. Spare and unflinching, The Mother Knot is Kathryn Harrison’scourageous exploration of her painful feelings about her mother,and of her depression and recovery. Writer, wife, mother of three,Kathryn Harrison finds herself, at age forty-one, wrestling with ablack, untamable force that seems to have the power to undermineher sanity and her safety, a darkness that is tied to herrelationship with her own mother, dead for many years but no less ahaunting presence. Shaken by a family emergency that reveals thefragility of her current happiness, Harrison falls prey to despairand anxiety she believed she’d overcome long before. A relapse ofanorexia becomes the tangible reminder of a youth spent trying toachieve the perfection she had hoped would win her mother’s love,and forces her to confront, understand, and ul