Four Mothers - by Abigail Leonard (Hardcover)

About the Book

Tsukasa in Japan grapples with memories of a difficult childhood as she tries to chart a new, healthier path for her own daughter while balancing onerous cultural expectations. Chelsea in Kenya endures a devastating loss just before she gives birth and finds that without the traditional support of previous generations, motherhood can be grueling, but it can also provide emotional healing. Anna in Finland navigates a complicated relationship with her child's father, but the country's robust family policies allow her to still pursue the kind of parenthood that she envisioned. Sarah in the US leaves the religious community that raised her in order to create a less traditional family of her own only to find she's largely confronting motherhood alone. Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Leonard interweaves these stories with a critically researched exploration of how parental support programs evolved in each country--and why some provide more help than others. As nations around the world debate programs like paid leave, universal daycare, reproductive healthcare, and family tax incentives, Four Mothers offers a uniquely intimate, moving portrait of what those policies mean for parents on the ground, and considers what modern families really want.

Book Synopsis

Abigail Leonard's page-turning narrative of four real women--Anna from Finland, Tsukasa from Japan, Sarah from the U.S., and Chelsea from Kenya--is a "deeply personal look at women worldwide grappling with the best and worst moments of their first year... eye-opening and cathartic, this is a love letter to parents and a clarion call for better policy." (Eve Rodsky, New York Times-bestselling author of Fair Play)

*An Amazon Best Nonfiction Book of 2025*

Tsukasa in Japan grapples with memories of a difficult childhood as she tries to chart a new, healthier path for her own daughter while balancing onerous cultural expectations. Chelsea in Kenya endures a devastating loss just before she gives birth and finds that without the traditional support of previous generations, motherhood can be grueling - but it can also provide emotional healing. Anna in Finland navigates a complicated relationship with her child's father, but the country's robust family policies allow her to still pursue the kind of parenthood that she envisioned. Sarah in the US leaves the religious community that raised her in order to create a less traditional family of her own only to find she's largely confronting motherhood alone.

Utterly moving and propulsively readable from page one, Leonard interweaves these stories with a critically researched exploration of how parental support programs evolved in each country--and why some provide more help than others. As nations around the world debate programs like paid leave, universal daycare, reproductive healthcare, and family tax incentives, Four Mothers offers a uniquely intimate, moving portrait of what those policies mean for parents on the ground--and considers what modern families really want.

Review Quotes

An Amazon Editors' Best Nonfiction Book of 2025 So Far

Featured on PBS NewsHour

"Fascinating."--Kara Alaimo, US News and World Reports

"Leonard is a masterly reporter. The four women share intimate details of their shifting post-baby lives, which read like gripping fiction... It's public interest journalism at its best -- powerful human stories peppered with well-chosen facts... [Leonard] elegantly makes a compelling case for a fairer society."--The Times (UK)

"A deeply personal window into how policy shapes parents' lives." --The Guardian

"[A] piercing and poignant debut... Leonard relays in lithe, captivating prose... This is an enthralling and kaleidoscopic view of modern motherhood."--Publishers Weekly, *STARRED REVIEW*

"A personal and empathetic portrait of early motherhood around the world."--Cambridge Day

"These engaging case studies reveal... resonate and reflect current universal demographic trends: changing family structures, more women in the workplace, an increase in single moms. Gathered by Leonard, these intriguing, real-life examples provide strong testimony for the need to take better care of our newest and most vulnerable fellow humans."--Booklist, *STARRED REVIEW*

"This captivating book by author Abigail Leonard... delves into universal motherhood themes and the potential of family-friendly policies to alleviate daily stressors for parents worldwide."--Morning Blend Milwaukee

"This is a fascinating first-year account of [mothers'] support systems, parental leave, social issues, personal thoughts, and uplifting stories."--Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez Regional Column, Philadelphia Tribune

"Four Mothers shows how trials of modern parenting are complicated by so much more than gender norms, familial expectations, or individual finances. This deeply personal look at women worldwide grappling with the best and worst moments of their first year is eye-opening and cathartic. It is a love letter to parents and a clarion call for better policy." --Eve Rodsky, New York Times-bestselling author of Fair Play

"I could not put this book down. Four Mothers is a masterfully reported work of narrative nonfiction, tracing the journeys of four remarkable women. Abigail Leonard deftly weaves together these astonishing stories of heartbreak, hope, sacrifice, and love. Grounded in deep research and reporting, she skillfully reveals the hidden forces and systems that shape modern motherhood. This book will make you step back and consider your own experiences of mothering and being mothered, how similar or different it all may have been in another place, at another time, in another body."--Erika Hayasaki, author Somewhere Sisters

"Abigail Leonard's Four Mothers is the exquisitely reported and intensely readable story of how women from four corners of the world navigate early parenthood. Despite vastly different social systems and relationships, the strains and joys of motherhood are similar across cultures and familiar to anyone who is a parent. Leonard paints compelling portraits of each woman, her partner and her world, and I needed to know how everything would turn out. Once I started Four Mothers I could not put it down." --Darcy Lockman, author of All the Rage

"With all the gifts of a novelist, reporter Abigail Leonard chronicles the lives of women around the world during their first year of motherhood, to make you feel their joy, their fear, their exhaustion, and their fierce love for their children. This is real motherhood on the page, bolstered by rigorous research to explain why our current systems have failed families and offer insights for a brighter future."--Jo Piazza, bestselling author of How to Be Married

About the Author

Abigail Leonard is an international reporter and news producer, previously based in Tokyo, where she was a frequent contributor to NPR, Time Magazine, and New York Times video. Before moving to Japan, she wrote and produced news documentaries as a staff producer for PBS, ABC and Al Jazeera America. Stories she reported have earned an Overseas Press Club Award, a National Headliner Award, an Award for Excellence in Health Care Journalism and a James Beard Media Award Nomination. She now lives in Washington DC with her husband and three children.