The Push Summary
Ashley Audrain

The Push Overview

The Push by Ashley Audrain is a novel told from the first-person perspective of Blythe Connor in the form of a written manuscript addressed to her ex-husband, Fox. It largely spans the course of the life of their first child, Violet, from the early 2000s to about 2015 in middle-class suburban America. Blythe believes that Violet intentionally killed her one-year-old brother, Sam, with the titular push that sent him into oncoming traffic. The novel challenges the reader’s expectations of American mothers by questioning Blythe’s reliability until the very end. The Push deals with themes such as expectations of motherhood, female identity, generational abuse and trauma, loss, and a mother’s responsibility.