Five of the best fictional mothers

Elif Shafak is the most widely read female writer in Turkey. Her books include the novels The Bastard of Istanbul and The Forty Rules of Love and the memoir Black Milk.

She named five favorite literary mothers for the Telegraph, including:

Motherhood is an essential theme in Isabel Allende’s The House of the Spirits. Against political tension and social turbulence, Allende gives us feisty, colourful, unforgettable fragments of womanhood and motherhood.

Read about another mother on the list.

Also see: the ten best fictional mothers; the ten worst mothers in books; Elizabeth Lowry's five best books about mothers of many sorts; and the Barnes & Noble Review's list of five top books on mothers.

--Marshal Zeringue