Family mysteries

SUSAN Rieger’s women’s fiction novel, Like Mother, Like Mother, is set to hit the shelves on October 29.

The story follows the lives of three generations of women. In 1960, two-year-old Lila Pereira has her mother committed to an asylum by her abusive father, and she never sees her again.

Fast forward to three decades later, Lila is the powerful executive editor of The Washington Globe who prioritises her career over her daughters, who are left for her husband to take care of.

Grace, their youngest daughter, grows up resentful. She goes on to become a successful reporter and even writes and publishes a bestselling book about her mother, which opens her eyes to the fact that she does not know anything about her own family - did her grandmother die in the asylum?

In addition to writing books, Susan taught law to undergraduates at Columbia Law School, where she graduated, and Yale University, where she worked as a residential college dean.

She is the author of two novels The Heirs and The Divorce Papers.

Susan revealed that she finds writing fiction more difficult than law duties.

“Law requires education, experience and, most importantly, judgment,” she said in an interview.

“Fiction requires invention, discernment and, most importantly, discipline. To sit down to write a novel, with no set task in front of you, is very different from lawyering and, for me, far more difficult. But, writing fiction is more satisfying. You’re making something,” she added.