Motherlands

Dennis Andrulis

A mother’s love longed for in a new world.

Growing up on a farm in early twentieth-century Hungary, Irene knew only joy and the deep, enduring love of her grandmother. As. the first world war ends, a letter arrives summoning Irene to join her long-absent mother, Mary, in America. Irene's odyssey takes her from security to pressing danger with her embittered mother. As the new world exerts its romantic pull on Irene, Mary's darkness and family secrets begin to reveal themselves. Irene must choose whether to pursue her dreams of higher education and independence or risk being consumed by her mother's broken dreams.

Inspired by his mother's oral history and stories, Dennis Andrulis's Motherlands offers a moving portrait of the immigrant experience and the enduring hope for love and belonging in a new land.

Dennis Andrulis is a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. He has written for the Huffington Post and published nonfiction on the costs of the AIDS epidemic, race and culture, and the intersection of health and society—a lifelong dedication inspired by his mother’s immigrant experience and work in social services. A founding board member of Texas Performing Arts, Dennis has long been an active supporter of the arts in the Austin community. In a former life, he worked as an amateur chef for a catering service in college. When he’s not biking, reading, writing, or teaching, you can usually find him in the kitchen—or the wine room—preparing meals for his family and friends. Motherlands is his first novel.