Unfolding as a beautifully quiet, interior monologue, Graham Swift’s Tomorrow follows Paula, a woman coming to terms with a decision she made years ago - one that has ruled her life as “her secret”. We have all sat up during those quiet pre-dawn mornings wondering what tomorrow will bring (and yes that saying is where the title came from). The point of this book is not that there is a secret to be revealed, but that it is Paula who has a secret and it is her secret.

Not all secrets are of the “I killed my dad and married my mother” world-changing variety. Ordinary, boring people have secrets. Every secret is important to the person who keeps that secret, whether they bite their toenails, or truly love Elvis and can’t get enough. It is part of the human condition to withhold secrets. The secret holder frets that “if the world only knew, they would think differently of me” and that is what keeps Paula up on this one night. Her secret is what has ruled her life for sixteen years, and why her husband can continue to sleep through the night unbothered. Intrigued yet?

This will be the sleeper on the fall list, perfect for those reading groups who like to share their intimate secrets (to the embarrassment of others).

Among the many, many things my Mum has given me, one of the earliest and most lasting is her love of reading. She read to me at night, taught me my letters long before kindergarten, constantly took me to the public library, and most importantly never censored anything that I wanted to read, but let me loose to explore, indulge and reject at will. She also scoured jumble sales, always on the lookout for used copies of Enid Blytons to add to my collection.

The bond between a mother and child is always unique and changing and thus almost impossible to depict accurately in any book or memoir. However, if such a thing were possible, this Mother’s Day I’d love to give a hug to two particularly memorable fictional mothers.

Roddy Doyle’s Paula Spencer is such a lovable and complicated mess. Her abusive marriage was detailed in The Woman Who Walked Into Doors, and in the sequel that bears her name, she’s now a recovering alcoholic, filled with guilt and desperate to make amends to her children. At the same time she’s discovering a whole new sober world that is alternatively scary and exhilarating. Her sardonic, witty and painfully vulnerable voice really tugs at the heartstrings.

My second favourite mother is Reta Winters in Carol Shields’ wonderful novel Unless. Her emotional journey trying to understand why her smart, beautiful daughter has taken to begging in the streets is such a compelling and insightful exploration of those inevitable distances that grow between family members and the necessity of trust and letting go.

Both these novels are great because they are not just about maternal relationships, but feature strong and tough women who, simultaneously, are also actively searching - and finding - their own identities outside of motherhood. As my own Mum has always done and taught by example.

Wow, what a lovely paragraph and what great choices. Maylin has set the bar frighteningly high. (I met Maylin’s mother once at Doors Open. I was working a table at the Royal York when we were selling John Sewell’s book on all the interesting buildings/spaces in Toronto. I’ll never forget her. She said, “Hi, I’m Maylin’s mommy!” I could tell she was so proud to have this extraordinary daughter. I hope she has a great Mother’s Day.)

On this Mother’s Day - since mine is no longer with us, and my darling children are out of town - I will think of Sheilagh Fielding, the unmarried mother of two and Wayne Johnston’s most celebrated character, star (with Joey Smallwood) of The Colony of Unrequited Dreams and most especially The Custodian of Paradise. I will also think of Moranna MacKenzie, another mother of two, who has to endure many Mother’s Days without access to her children in An Audience of Chairs by Joan Clark.

A few mothers have sprung from the pen of Alexander McCall Smith. There is Mma Ramotswe of the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency series, whose then-fiancé, now-husband adopts two children from Mma Potokwani at the orphan farm and deposits them at Mma Ramotswe’s house on Zebra Drive - without consulting her! But she forgives him of course and the two children are very happy to live with Mma Ramotswe and then with Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni who moves in after the wedding (so much cake!). And Isabel Dalhousie in Edinburgh is also poised to become a mother when we last see her in The Right Attitude to Rain. (She is not married either.) We must wait for The Careful Use of Compliments to find out if it’s a boy or a girl and who, surprisingly perhaps, will be jealous. And maybe we should remember that most, though not all, mothers are perfect. Think of Bertie’s mother Irene in the 44 Scotland Street series. She has read all the works of Melanie Klein and wants her 6-year-old Bertie to learn Italian and play the saxophone - sounds very reasonable to me! - but Bertie would prefer a boy’s life of fishing and rugby (whatever that is).

And finally and more seriously, Happy Mother’s Day to all the women in Africa who have taken on the mothering role for countless AIDS orphans, and to Stephanie Nolen, a new mother herself, who writes so movingly about them in 28: Stories of AIDS in Africa.