I sure wish there was a way to do half stars on reviews. I liked this book, but it wasn't my normal type of read. I really enjoyed the characters and how their lives unfolded through the story but felt that there was just a bit lacking at the end. Almost like the ending was a bit rushed. Overall it was a good read. ( )

Ms. Cohen is a talented author, but I did not enjoy this memoir as much as her former one, which was outstanding. ( )

Beautifully written memoir about a mother and daughter. ( )

While this moving memoir speaks quite explicitly to the mother/daughter dynamic, it also speaks to any close relationship where one of the people is gone. I generally don't like to give much detail away in a review, not to mention that many other reviews lay out the general events that form the heart of this work. What I would prefer to do is explain where this wonderful book took me while I was lost in the pages. This will be similar to what many others have experienced and, to a considerably smaller degree gives an idea of how this memoir works, and make no mistake, this memoir absolutely works.

My father passed away from cancer while I was in college, insisting I not put my education on hold. I went through the usual grief-like emotions upon getting the call from my mother he had died. For weeks, maybe months, I thought I grieved, and I guess I did but not nearly the way I did several years later. When I found myself in a situation that would always have made me call and talk to my father, I picked up the phone and called. It wasn't until my mother answered that I remembered he was not there any longer. While that hit me hard, and triggered what I took to be the true grief, it was the aftermath of that call that stayed with me to this day. My father did indeed help me through my difficult period. He spoke to me in my mind, through my dreams and walked me through it. In other words, he had so instilled how he thought and how he had always helped that I could "hear" him giving me advice and asking questions I would not likely have asked myself as myself.

Cohen's memoir has potentially traumatic situations through which her mother helps her, and is told in a tender yet strong manner sorely lacking in my little paragraph. But the result is the same, those we love, especially when the bond is a close one (even in spite of sometimes growing apart), will always be nearby ready to help when we are ready to accept that help. I am glad I read this book and especially thankful to have had those memories of mine rekindled.

Reviewed from an ARC made available by the publisher via NetGalley. ( )

What a beautifully written memoir about a horribly difficult year in this woman's life. With a breast cancer diagnosis for herself, a terribly painful leg-lengthening process for her 8-year-old daughter, and the experience of connecting with the birth mother of her eldest college-aged daughter, Alive Eve Cohen definitely did not have an uneventful year. I often forgot that this was a true story, reading more like an exciting piece of fiction. So happy I received this book through the LibraryThing Member Giveaway program. ( )

In this candid memoir about a difficult year in the author’s life, she comes to terms with her relationship with her mother and events from her childhood. Through conversations with her mother, we learn of her mom’s own battle with cancer, its secrecy and shame, her unhappiness at being the stay-at-home mom expected of her in those days, and her unfulfilled dreams.

A complex and ultimately heartfelt memoir about being a mother, being a daughter, and reconciling the circumstances of our past.

Audio production: The author performs the narration and beautifully brings her story—and her mother—to life. The book was a pleasure to listen to and, at only six hours long, I finished it in one day. An excellent choice over print, especially for listeners new to the format or those that don’t usually choose audio. ( )

Alice Eve Cohen writes beautiful, honest memoirs. Her first memoir, What I Thought I Knew was a searing portrait of her unexpected pregnancy and the complicated feelings around it. In this second memoir, Cohen looks at the mother daughter relationship through the lens of medical procedures, cancer, college, and memories of her own long dead mother.

One year filled with life changing events brings the memory of Cohen's mother back to her decades after her death. Cohen's sunny dispositioned youngest daughter, Eliana, is scheduled to have an excruciatingly painful surgery to lengthen one of her legs, a condition that can potentially be traced back to the tests and drugs that Cohen faced during her surprise pregnancy; Cohen's older daughter, Julia, prepares to leave for college and decides to search for and meet her birth mother; and Cohen receives a diagnosis of breast cancer, the disease that changed her own childhood forever. In the midst of this confluence of events, Cohen starts remembering her mother, her mother's own breast cancer diagnosis, and the resultant devastating change in their relationship as she imagines conversations with her mother.

Cohen's relationship with her mother was far from perfect and it only deteriorated when she hit puberty just as her mother underwent a radical mastectomy and treatment for breast cancer. Her memories of her mother are fraught and at least partially tied up with her perception of their contentious relationship. But as she undergoes her own cancer treatment, despite initial misgivings, Cohen invites the vision of her mother to speak to her, to offer her reassurance, and she starts to remember the real person behind all the hurt. In doing so, she comes to an understanding of her mother's frustrations with her life and finds that offering her mother's memory grace allows her to offer grace to herself as well. In accepting her mother's imperfect mothering, she finds some peace with her past. Forgiveness and remembrance honor the attempt and help her in her own struggle to stop feeling as if she's fallen short. In this magical and terrible year weaving her own childhood through with the events of her present, Cohen explores the complicated love between mothers and daughters and faces the bittersweet realization that more positive time with her mother was cut so short. She looks at the difficult decisions she must make in her own life as a mother and the ways that each of us are flawed. The memoir shines with honest emotion and raw hurt, but most of all, with love. The writing is eloquent and the story is moving. Cohen is forever both mother and daughter and her coming to grips with who she is in each iteration makes the story so vivid and touching. ( )

I really enjoyed reading Alice Eve Cohen's "The Year My Mother Came Back". I am extremely thankful to have received this Goodreads Giveaway and to be introduced to Cohen's writing. "The Year My Mother Came Back" is a memoir about a difficult year in Cohen's life. Her eldest adopted daughter is leaving for college and meeting her birth mother for the first time, her eight year old is facing a difficult leg lengthening surgery and recovery and Alice herself is diagnosed with breast cancer and must undergo her own surgery and radiation. It is during this time that she "sees and speaks" to her mother who has been dead for 30 years. During these conversations Alice tries to make sense of her own difficult relationship with her mother. Candidly written with a touch of humor, it was a difficult book to put down. I was able to personally related to many of the relationship issues addressed. I highly recommend this book! ( )

This book touched me in so many ways. As a mother myself I can relate with the feelings of inadequacy, for not being the perfect mother.

Alice has to deal with a diagnosis of breast cancer, her daughter's surgery and her daughter meeting her birth mother. Her joys and fears became my own as I read.

This book was such an amazing read and I am so glad it was my intro in reading memoirs. I highly recommend the is book to all women, whether you are a mother or not. ( )

Alice Eve Cohen's memoir, The Year My Mother Came Back, is a beautiful book written with love, honesty, wit and candor. As she faces a most difficult time in her life, her mother, who died thirty years ago, reappears to her. Theirs had been a complicated relationship for reasons not understood for many years. Alice needs her now, just as Alice's daughters need her. By conversing with her mother and examining her own childhood, she learns a great deal about what it means to be a daughter and a good mother.
Everything about this book is special and I loved reading it.

I received this book through LibraryThing for free and I give this review of my own free will. ( )

I received this book as part of the member giveaway program. What a great story of a woman who reflects back on her relationship with her mother while she is a mother herself. As the author's relationship with her mother deals with not only the everyday events, the added strain of her mother's diagnosis of breast cancer also places new strains on their already strained relationship. Now years later, the author is not only dealing with breast cancer herself but also has daughter's of her own. What a wonderful story of mothers and daughters. A great story and a true tribute! ( )

In a year when the author was treated for breast cancer, the author grapples with what it means to be a "perfect" mother as she engages in "conversations" with her dead mother whose own struggles with breast cancer devastated their relationship and corroded the trust and love between them. In this memoir, Alice Cohen lovingly and movingly describes how she comes to accept her own limitations and imperfections through her hard-won reconciliation with her own "imperfect"mother, a complex woman who struggled with the constrictions of being a wife and mother. The Year My Mother Came Back perfectly captured my own longing for my deceased mother and the complicated, loving, hard relationship between us. It is a moving tribute to all mothers and daughter who seek to understand and forgive and love each other.

I received this review copy from Netgalley and appreciate the opportunity to review it. ( )