Mother: A Memoir follows the turbulent relationship between the author’s mentally ill Pakistani mother and the author himself who carries the same mental illness. From living together in the slums of New York City’s Lower East Side in the 1980s through the author’s education in Connecticut and the several hospitalizations he has to confront, Mother is a powerful and unforgettable read that tries to be as honest as possible in portraying what ought to be a loving relationship between a mother and her son but strays far from that ideal into the areas of abuse, poverty, and crushing mental illness.