The Mothers

As the protagonist of The Mothers, Nadia Turner is a round and dynamic character whose transformation from a wounded, fiercely independent teenager to a woman confronting her past forms the novel’s central arc. Her actions are largely driven by a desire to escape the confines of her grief-stricken home and the judgment of her community. This ambition is established early, as she views the decision to terminate her pregnancy as necessary to protect her future. She cannot let the baby “nail her life in place when she’d just been given a chance to escape” (13), a metaphor that frames Oceanside as a place of limited economic and social opportunity. This choice, and the fact that her community disapproves of termination of pregnancy, forcing her to keep it a secret, isolates her and becomes a defining wound she carries for years. The golden baby feet pin she secretly treasures serves as a tangible symbol of this unresolved grief, a private acknowledgment of a loss she cannot share publicly.

Nadia’s character is profoundly shaped by the trauma of her mother’s death by suicide, which leaves her emotionally guarded and wary of vulnerability.