Corey Ann Haydu deeply thought about motherhood and friendship while writing Mothers and Other Strangers

In her adult fiction debut, Mothers and Other Strangers, Corey Anne Haydu delivers an unforgettable story about two estranged childhood best friends who reunite as expectant mothers, after a mysterious falling-out between their own mothers keeps them apart for years​. The writer, no stranger to writing compelling stories for all ages, brings readers into a complicated relationship with warmth and rich prose.

We asked her to answer our recurring My Reading Life Q&A so readers could get to know the books that shaped her life and influenced her writing.

What was the first book you were obsessed with as a child?

This is so hard! I have always been a huge bookworm starting pretty much at birth, since I’m from a family of huge readers. As a young child I loved a picture book called The Mountains of Tibet by Mordicai Gerstein, which was a really beautifully illustrated unpacking of the idea or reincarnation. I remember loving that I could choose what universe and planet and city my next life would be in. And Shel Silverstein’s A Light in the Attic was a constant at bedtime. In grade school I was deeply in love with a book called The Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles, which is, as you might guess, a really whimsical and unique book that stars a creature called a Whangdoodle who, if I remember correctly, regenerates new socks all time. Three siblings travel to meet the Whangdoodle, so it’s a sort of magical quest novel that really resonated with me, I think because of how imaginative and unusual it was. I liked that the novel wasn’t one all my friends were reading—it felt like it was uniquely my own. I also loved Mandy, another favorite that was about a girl who finds and fixes up a cottage and a garden in the woods. It had a sadder tone to it, and I felt understood by Mandy and her desire to have a beautiful place all her own. Both books were by an author named Julie Edwards…. who I learned was actually Julie Andrews. As in the Julie Andrews. I was an actor as a kid and young adult, so I think I was also in love with those books because I too was an actor who loved writing and books and stories, and I was excited to see that you could do both. 

What book helped you through puberty?

Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar. And her book of poems, Ariel. I had a really hard time in adolescence, with a lot of upset at home and a huge fracture in my group of friends at the start of high school that left me really alone. So I needed books that spoke to what hurt. Reading really sad, difficult novels and poetry about girls and women who felt lost and alone and overwhelmed was about the only cure I had for my own loneliness in that time. I think those books normalized hurting for me in a way that was actually really helpful and grounding. In my books for kids and young adults, I’ve similarly always centered difficult topics in the hopes kids feel less alone in their sadnesses. 

What book do you wish 18-year-old you had read?

Wow, I’ve never been asked this question! Right away Chanel Miller’s Know My Name comes to mind as a book that I think would mean something to just about any eighteen year old, or really any person,  and is both beautifully written and so important. I also think I would have loved to have had Meg Wolitzer’s The Interestings as a younger adult, attending theatre school, making friends, navigating creativity and jealousy and friendship. I love books that center friendship, and because friendship in high school was so lacking for me, I had a lot to learn about it in college, but it eventually became one of the biggest forces for good in my life. I wish I could have had a bigger picture of its complications and joys earlier on. 

If you were to teach a class on Damn Good Writing, what books would make the syllabus?

Of course everything I’ve already mentioned above! But also The Liar’s Club by Mary Karr which is another lifelong favorite and just a gorgeous piece of writing. John Irving’s A Prayer for Owen Meany from which I learned absolutely everything I know about endings and setting up breadcrumbs for that coveted “surprising but inevitable” ending that I think books need. Sandra Cisneros’ A House on Mango Street for understanding the power of small moments told beautifully. Julie Orringer’s How to Breathe Underwater for emotionally impactful short stories. Roxane Gay’s Hunger which is so unflinching and unique and powerful. I would add Beverly Clearly’s Ramona series and Lois Lowry’s Anastastia Krupnick series which I’ve recently been re-reading with my older daughter for their precision with character and voice. And for novels I consider perfect there would have to be The Great Believers by Rebecca Makkai, Fates and Furies by Lauren Groff, Circe by Madeline Miller, Tom Lake by Anne Patchett, Demon Copperhead by Barabra Kingsolver, White Oleander by Janet Fitch,The House of Spirits by Isabelle Ayende, Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel Garcia Marquez—gosh can I really teach this class?? I now am dying to put together this curriculum! 

What books helped guide you while writing your book?

I looked through my reading lists for the years I was most deeply working on this novel (I was writing it off and on for about seven or eight years). During that time I gave birth to my two daughters, and I read a lot of fiction and non-fiction about motherhood, families, and friendship—Same As It Ever Was by Claire Lombardo, Celest Ng’s Little Fires Everywhere, The Upstairs House by Julia Fine, A Cloud in the Shape of a Girl by Jean Thompson, I’ll Show Myself Out by Jessi Klein, Wahala by Nikki May.  Deeply thinking about motherhood and friendship really defined the last few years of my reading and writing life. 

What books are on your nightstand now?

I just finished—and absolutely loved—Jessica Anthony’s The Most which is so smart and tightly wound—and who doesn’t love a super short novel? (If only I could write one!) I also just read The Wilderness by Angela Flourny, which was so immersive and urgent, another great read. I just started reading Fredrik deBoer’s The Mind Reels which had a great opening chapter. I went to Olivia Muenter’s launch at The Strand for her new novel, Little One, so that’s in my stack. Kate Broad’s Greenwich just came in on my library holds. As did Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro. And my mother gifted my The Favorites by Layne Fargo for my birthday, so that has joined the pile as well. I’ve been in a great reading zone lately, partly because I have gotten better at setting aside books that don’t speak to me, and partly because I have been increasingly committed to reading before bed, now that my youngest is three and a little more of my brain is available to me in the evening.