About Four Mothers
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)
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.
About Abigail Leonard
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.
About Alexandra Dean
Alexandra Dean is an Emmy Award-winning journalist and a documentary director and producer, known for directing "Bombshell: the Hedy Lamarr Story," which had a four year run on Netflix and was among Indiewire Critics' top biographical documentaries ever made, and for the documentary feature “This Is Paris,” a portrait of Paris Hilton that revealed her traumatic childhood in an abusive boarding school, and which contributed to a nation-wide change of legislation to stop abuse in similar schools.
She has made several documentary series, including the 10-part "Secrets of Playboy" season 1 on A&E and Hulu, which won the Critic's Choice Best Crime/Justice documentary of 2022, and "Truth be Told," a series about the Judd Family that aired on Lifetime this mother's day weekend and can now be seen on Amazon Prime.
Dean has also written for Businessweek magazine and produced numerous documentaries for PBS and Bloomberg television.
