It felt rushed, and it lost it's punch in the most critical moment. Again, using my spainard card here, the whole bought baby moment could have been So Much More Magnanimous. There was an epidemic of doctors and nurses (nuns) that flat out stole babies from their mothers (single mothers, republicans, poor women, romani women, you get the gist) and gave said babies to rich families under the fascist wing. So yeah, by romanticising nuns who literally took away a baby from a muslim woman (with the very same practice used by fascist, stealing nuns) it doesn't really leave a good taste in my mouth. I just loved it. Eva (as in forever, not evil, she tells us early on) is searching for something. She knows that something is missing but isn’t entirely sure what. She just knows that she doesn’t belong in her family. This book chronicles her life and her desire to find love and happiness. Eva makes wonderful friends and I loved them all. Anyway, I could rant more: about Barney and the romanticism, about how that was dealt with, about Carrie being forgotten although she also is a mother, about many thinhgs. But let me stop here. This book, this book is immense. We are following the story of Eva, from her first memories as a four year starting school and making a best friend, all the way through to adulthood. We see her at her best and her worst, at her highs and lows. This book doesn't pull it's punches. Eva is an only child, introverted and lonely. Her parents, though wealthy, don't seem to have much time for her. When she starts school she doesn't feel like she fits in, especially with her brown skin, but is overjoyed to make a friend at last.

On Esteban's 17th birthday, he is hit and killed by a car while chasing after actress Huma Rojo for her autograph following a performance of A Streetcar Named Desire, where Rojo portrays Blanche DuBois. Manuela agrees with her colleagues at work that her son's heart be transplanted to a man in A Coruña. After following her son's heart to its new recipient, Manuela resigns from her job and travels to Barcelona in search of her son's father, Lola, a transgender woman whom Manuela had kept a secret from Esteban, just as she had never told Lola about their son.

Between her emotionally absent mother and her physically absent father, there is nobody to answer them. Eva is convinced that all is not as it seems. Why are there no baby pictures of her? Why do her parents avoid all questions about her early years?

Although Eva’s life could be construed as lonely, she has a best friend, Bridget, who fills the empty gaps perfectly. Bridget’s home is everything Eva dreams of; siblings, noise, mess, chaos - and the most warm and loving mother that ever lived. This is where Eva starts her journey to find out who she is, where she comes from and to try and understand the many variations of motherhood. As Eva enters adulthood, her struggles with endometriosis and infertility whilst in an unfulfilling and controlling relationship were insightful and honest. I’ve yet to come across novels where these issues feature throughout the plot and they resonated with me personally. Complaints were that the book was perhaps a little too long; and that the one-sentence paragraphs became slightly annoying after a while. Also one reader considered the idea of Eva being the only child not to be able to produce a picture of herself as a baby, for a school project, was flawed and unlikely. We discussed this and considered it to be a dubious educational practice in any case. This book, this book is immense. We are following the story of Eva, from her first memories as a four year old starting school and making a best friend, all the way through to adulthood. We see her at her best and her worst, at her highs and lows. This book doesn't pull it's punches. Wow 👏🏻 what an incredible book this is!! I just wish I hadn’t left it so long to read. It was a brilliant book.Eva is aware from a young age that her family life is not as it should be. There is just her, her emotionally distant mother and her partially absent father. No siblings, no pets, just the three of them. But why are there no baby photos of Eva? And why is her mother so reluctant to remember Eva as a baby? This is a quest Eva is determined to get to the bottom of. Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times observed, "You don't know where to position yourself while you're watching a film like All About My Mother, and that's part of the appeal: Do you take it seriously, like the characters do, or do you notice the bright colors and flashy art decoration, the cheerful homages to Tennessee Williams and All About Eve, and see it as a parody? . . . Almodóvar's earlier films sometimes seemed to be manipulating the characters as an exercise. Here the plot does handstands in its eagerness to use coincidence, surprise and melodrama. But the characters have a weight and reality, as if Almodóvar has finally taken pity on them – has seen that although their plights may seem ludicrous, they are real enough to hurt". [7]

It follows our narrator Eva from childhood when she begins suspecting that her mother isn’t hers. There are no baby photos, no answers to her questions and suddenly, no father to turn to either. Eva’s mother suffers from depression, making her distant and absent emotionally and physically. Eva takes it upon herself to find out what’s missing and document her search in her Quest Book. I missed the author's debut novel when it was originally published, but I'm going to remedy that very soon. If it's half as good as this one, it will be wonderful. Eva has suspicions about her family and raises numerous questions and does some investigating throughout. This goes on for a number of years, along the way we meet some lovely characters and families and one or two not so lovely characters. It’s an immersive story, at times it’s joyful and happy but also at times it’s painful.La historia sigue la vida de Eva desde los cuatro años hasta los treinta años. Es una historia coming-of-age impresionante con una voz narradora que va cambiando conforme la prota va creciendo. La manera en la que está escrito este libro es ARTE. El estilo de la autora es precioso y delicado, y se va adaptando perfectamente a las diferentes etapas vitales que atraviesa Eva. Reading this book was a little slow and I was a somewhat irritated that it was so much of an effort. However, slowly I became more and more intrigued by Eva and the surrounding characters. I marvelled at her resistance and fortitude and how bravely she confronted the future. I must admit I cried for her. This was simply beautiful. It's narrated by Eva who grows up with the suspicion that her parents are not her birth parents (although they deny this). She's an only child who forms a firm friendship with Bridget and she is captivated by Bridget's large and loving family. Over the course the book, Eva will have a progression of mother figures in her life and will also come to understand her own story.