Authors Interviewing Characters: Jacinda Townsend

MOTHER COUNTRY

Saddled with student loans, medical debt, and the sudden news of her infertility after a major car accident, Shannon, an African American woman, follows her boyfriend to Morocco in search of relief. There, in the cobblestoned medina of Marrakech, she finds a toddler in a pink jacket whose face mirrors her own. With the help of her boyfriend and a bribed official, Shannon makes the fateful decision to adopt and raise the girl in Louisville, Kentucky. But the girl already has a mother: Souria, an undocumented Mauritanian woman who was trafficked as a teen, and who managed to escape to Morocco to build another life.

In rendering Souria’s separation from her family across vast stretches of desert and Shannon’s alienation from her mother under the same roof, Jacinda Townsend brilliantly stages cycles of intergenerational trauma and healing. Linked by the girl who has been a daughter to them both, these unforgettable protagonists move toward their inevitable reckoning.

Jacinda Townsend interviews Shannon!

Shannon: (enters the coffee shop wearing a black jean jacket and pleather leggings, carrying a Dunkin Donuts bag. Approaches the table where I’m sitting in a huff.)

Jacinda: I don’t think they’ll let you eat food from another shop in this shop.

Shannon: Oh, as you know, I’m like a cat. I piss where I want.

Jacinda (sniffs): And you smell faintly of weed.

Shannon: Well. Nice to meet you, too.

Jacinda: Let’s get down to business, shall we? You’re not here because you’re mother of the year, exactly. So what made you do it? Why’d you run off with someone else’s kid?

Shannon: It’s not like I broke into her house and stole her. She was alone. In an alley. Remember? You wrote her there. With no parental supervision, you wrote her there. You did that. You practically invited me to take her, that poor kid.

Jacinda: I wrote her there, sure. But I didn’t tell you to come–

Shannon (shifts in her chair, leans over so that her face is two inches from mine. The weed smell is much stronger. It’s emanating from all two feet of her glorious head of hair. It feels like the aroma of weed is lifting from each of her curls to fill the entire shop): You know what Lando Calrissian said. I’m sorry I couldn’t do better, but I had my own problems. Infertility’s a bitch. Everyone making you feel like you’re not a real woman and all that. And also, it was like I was married to King Henry VIII. If I wasn’t going to produce a kid somehow, I was going to end up on the street. With no health insurance, no dental–and you know my problems. You wrote those, too.

Jacinda: Well you barely tried. One round of IVF is nothing. Vlad had the cash. He would’ve done more. And there’s adoption. You know, LEGAL adoption.  

Shannon (reaches into her bag, offers me a blueberry donut): Look. The girl was there and she needed some care. When I got her back to the hotel and smelled her clothes, it was obvious. I got her back to the States, that kid ate like a champ.

Jacinda (thinking this donut is good, a miracle, actually): Just tell me you learned something from all this?

Shannon: I did. I learned that people will judge you no matter what. I learned that the world–the whole entire world–is a cruel, cruel place. I learned that when you’re a woman, no choice is a great choice, because no one’s gonna let it be.

Jacinda: Anything else?

Shannon: (reaches into her bag for her own donut, a toasted coconut that looks like something you’d bring back from the souq, and takes a bite) Yeah. I learned that I’m not perfect. No one is. There is absolutely no way for any human on this planet to make every action the right one. But you know what? It’s okay. Because when you love a kid, absolutely love them? And when you make the word “love” a verb instead of a noun? However you’re acting is the perfectly right way to act.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Jacinda Townsend is the author of Saint Monkey, which won the Janet Heidinger Kafka Prize and the James Fenimore Cooper Prize. She is a graduate of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop and teaches in the MFA program at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor.

https://twitter.com/JacindaAuMaroc

PRAISE FOR MOTHER COUNTRY:

“The lives of two women from across the globe intersect in this impactful story of motherhood, resilience, and belonging… In scenes both vast and intimate, Townsend brings to life the busy streets of Marrakech as well as the quiet suburbs of Kentucky. This moving story about love and loss will not easily be forgotten.”

–Publishers Weekly

“An intense exploration of gender, race, and class rooted in transnational geopolitics and a tale that challenges readers to recognize the gap between sentimental notions of maternal instincts and the sometimes gritty reality of mothering. . . . Townsend’s insights into self, motherhood, freedom, and love and her ability to illuminate multiple realities as this complex tale unfolds ensure that this is a gripping and provocative read.”

–Booklist

“In Mother Country, Jacinda Townsend delivers on the promise of her debut novel with a tale that braids the trauma and dysfunctions at the root of American entitlement with the daily horror of survival on the other side of the world… elegantly spun with descriptions as poetic as they are brutal… In the end, Townsend seems to say, our pain, no matter how great, cannot be mitigated by inflicting damage on others—it must belong entirely to us.”

—Ru Freeman

“This heartbreaking novel of motherhood and the pain of separation is as moving as it is dark.”

–Oak Park Public Library

“The novel’s great strengths are the gorgeous prose and deep empathy that Townsend extends to both Souria and Shannon. Her multifaceted portrait of Morocco and insights into American privilege, transnational colorism, and transgenerational trauma elevate what could have been merely a tragic crime story. This thought-provoking novel highlights the precarious state of Black women and girls.”

–Kirkus Reviews

 

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Category: Contemporary Women Writers, Interviews, On Writing