Have Mother, Will Travel - Paperback

by Claire Fontaine (Author), Mia Fontaine (Author)

Glamour magazine called Come Back, the first nonfiction collaboration by Claire and Mia Fontaine, the "best mother-daughter memoir," while the New York Times Book Review praised it as, "a testament to the power of the love."

The Fontaines are back with Have Mother, Will Travel, a beautiful, thoughtful, insightful, inspiring book that brilliantly captures the changing relationship between a mother and her adult daughter. Seen within the context of an unforgettable round-the-world adventure, the emotional milestones reached and the new understandings and appreciations achieved will warm the heart and nourish the soul--an extraordinary journey that should not be missed by armchair travelers and by mothers and daughters everywhere.

What happens when a mother hitting her life's restart button and a daughter questioning her own future pack their bags--and their baggage--for a trip around the world?

• Midlife Meets Quarter-Life Crisis: With Claire facing fifty and Mia questioning... everything, their clashing perspectives on life, love, and larvae-infested rivers make for a funny and relatable journey.
• The Global Scavenger Hunt: From China to Egypt, follow the Fontaines on a high-stakes scavenger hunt across four continents that tests their wits, their patience, and their relationship.
• Hilarious Travel Disasters: Whether it's an ill-advised camel ride in a skirt or drinking tap water in Beijing, if something can go wrong on this trip, it probably will.
• Dual Mother-Daughter POV: Told in their alternating, deeply personal, and often contradictory voices, this memoir explores who they are becoming--both to each other and to themselves.

Front Jacket

Their bestselling memoir, Come Back, inspired readers with the story of Mia Fontaine's harrowing drug addiction and her mother, Claire's, desperate and ultimately successful attempts to save her. Now, a decade later, as Mia finds that adult life isn't all it's cracked up to be, Claire realizes that she forgot to plan for life after motherhood. Determined to transform themselves and a relationship that has frayed around the edges, the pair sets off on a five-month adventure through twenty cities and twelve countries: an extraordinary, often hilarious journey that includes mishaps, mayhem, and unexpected joys, from a passport-eating elephant in Malaysia to the lavender fields of France, where they finally make peace with their tumultuous past. Wiser for what they've learned from women in other cultures, and from each other, they return with a deepened sense of who they are and where they want to go.

--Leah Komaiko, author of Am I Old Yet?

Back Jacket

Their bestselling memoir, Come Back, inspired readers with the story of Mia Fontaine's harrowing drug addiction and her mother, Claire's, desperate and ultimately successful attempts to save her. Now, a decade later, as Mia finds that adult life isn't all it's cracked up to be, Claire realizes that she forgot to plan for life after motherhood. Determined to transform themselves and a relationship that has frayed around the edges, the pair sets off on a five-month adventure through twenty cities and twelve countries: an extraordinary, often hilarious journey that includes mishaps, mayhem, and unexpected joys, from a passport-eating elephant in Malaysia to the lavender fields of France, where they finally make peace with their tumultuous past. Wiser for what they've learned from women in other cultures, and from each other, they return with a deepened sense of who they are and where they want to go.