Mary McGarry Morris (born February 10, 1943) is an American novelist, short story author and playwright from New England.
She knows how a house with children in it sounds at night, what the heat and bustle in a kitchen feel like before a family dinner and how indiscretions arise in a dining room when everyone is flushed with wine.
"[citation needed] Morris' fifth novel was entitled A Hole in the Universe (2004)[14] and tells the story of a man returning to his community after having served 25 years in prison for murder.
Morris [is] a superb storyteller...and [her] undeniable compassion for and intuitive understanding of her characters' lives make us know and care about these people, too.
The Boston Globe described the book as "wonderful and absorbing", and The Washington Post wrote "The Lost Mother is the quietest, subtlest novel that ever kept me up into the small hours of the night, unable to look away.
The day she left, she brought her four-year-old daughter and youngest child, my mother, to a friend's house, then, dressed in her very best clothes, my grandmother climbed into a taxi and rode away forever.
Growing up, I was keenly aware of the loss my mother felt as well as the great love and admiration she had for her father, a quiet country man who raised his three children alone in those desperate times, often working day and night to support them.
"Morris published her seventh novel, The Last Secret (2009);[16] in an interview on NPR, she said that the idea for it came as she was listening to the song "Gimme Some Lovin'," written by Steve Winwood and members of the Spencer Davis Group.
[20] Morris's ninth novel, "The Silence" (2024), is about two women and a treacherous priest whose lives are forever linked by a childhood tragedy.