
Have Mother, Will Travel
A Mother and Daughter Discover Themselves, Each Other, and the World
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
$0.99/mo for the first 3 months

Buy for $22.49
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Claire Fontaine
-
Mia Fontaine
About this listen
A mother, a daughter, and a life-changing adventure around the world....
Their best-selling memoir, Come Back, moved and inspired with the story of Mia Fontaine's harrowing drug addiction and her mother, Claire's, desperate and ultimately successful attempts to save her. Now it's a decade later and Claire and Mia each face a defining moment in her life, and a mother-daughter relationship that has frayed around the edges.
At 51, Claire's shed her identity as Mia's savior but realizes that, oops, she forgot to plan for life after motherhood; Mia, 25 and eager to step outside her role as recovery's poster child, finds adult life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Determined to transform themselves and their relationship once again, the pair sets off on a five-month around-the-world adventure.
What awaits them is an extraordinary, often hilarious journey through 20 cities and 12 countries - one that includes mishaps, mayhem, and unexpected joys, from a passport-eating elephant to a calamitous camel ride around the Pyramids - and finally making peace with their tumultuous past in the lavender fields of France, where they live for the last four months of the trip. Seeing how self-possessed and community-minded twentysomethings are in other countries broadens Mia's perspective, helping her grow, and grow up. Claire uses the trip to examine her broken relationship with her own mother, a Holocaust survivor, and to create a vision for her second act. Watching her mom assess half a century of life, Mia comes to know her as Claire has always known Mia - as all mothers know their daughters - better than anyone else, and often better than themselves.
Wiser for what they've learned from women in other cultures, and from each other, they return with a deepened sense of who they are and where they want to go - and with each embracing the mature friendship they've discovered and the profound love they share.
Alternating between Claire and Mia's compelling and distinct voices, Have Mother, Will Travel is a testament to the power and beauty of the mother-daughter relationship, one that illuminates possibilities for our own lives.
©2012 Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine (P)2012 HarperCollinsPublishersListeners also enjoyed...
-
Where's the Next Shelter?
- By: Gary Sizer
- Narrated by: Gary Sizer
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where's the Next Shelter? is the true story of three travelers on the Appalachian Trail, a 2,000-mile hike that stretches from Georgia to Maine, told from the perspective of Gary Sizer, a seasoned backpacker and former marine who quickly finds himself humbled by the endeavor. If you long for the horizon or to sleep under the stars, then come along for the hike of a lifetime. All you have to do is take the first step.
-
-
If You Liked AWOL, You'll Like This
- By Rebecca on 06-02-16
By: Gary Sizer
-
Margarita Wednesdays
- Making a New Life by the Mexican Sea
- By: Deborah Rodriguez
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In answer to the question of what happened following her New York Times best seller Kabul Beauty School, Deborah Rodriquez is back with a new memoir Irreverent, insightful, and blatantly honest, Deborah takes us along on her inspiring journey of self-discovery and renewal after she is forced to flee Afghanistan in 2007. She first lands in California, where she feels like a misfit teetering on the brink of sanity. Where was that fearless redhead who stared danger in the face back in Kabul?
-
-
Enjoyable
- By porkypenguin on 12-19-22
-
The Book of Lost Names
- By: Kristin Harmel
- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lina Meisel, a retired librarian in Florida, is reading the newspaper one morning when she freezes. Her eyes lock on a photograph of a book she hasn’t seen in 65 years - a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II - an experience Lina remembers well - and the search to reunite people with the texts stolen from them so long ago. The book in the photograph is one of the most fascinating cases.
-
-
Another whiney female "heroine"
- By Patricia on 08-15-20
By: Kristin Harmel
-
See You in the Piazza
- New Places to Discover in Italy
- By: Frances Mayes
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Frances Mayes
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling and beloved author Frances Mayes discovers the hidden pleasures of Italy in a sumptuous travel narrative that crisscrosses the country, with inventive new recipes celebrating Italian cuisine.
-
-
Bravo Cassandra Campbell
- By John Genzale on 05-20-19
By: Frances Mayes
-
Wildflower
- By: Drew Barrymore
- Narrated by: Drew Barrymore
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years. It includes tales of living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.
-
-
Hold the shrieking !
- By Dawne on 11-27-15
By: Drew Barrymore
-
Breakfast with Buddha
- A Novel
- By: Roland Merullo
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he'd planned. But in an effort to westernize his passenger---and amuse himself---he decides to show the monk some "American fun" along the way.
-
-
a thoughtful and often hilarious journey
- By Mary McCarthy on 09-15-11
By: Roland Merullo
-
Where's the Next Shelter?
- By: Gary Sizer
- Narrated by: Gary Sizer
- Length: 11 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Where's the Next Shelter? is the true story of three travelers on the Appalachian Trail, a 2,000-mile hike that stretches from Georgia to Maine, told from the perspective of Gary Sizer, a seasoned backpacker and former marine who quickly finds himself humbled by the endeavor. If you long for the horizon or to sleep under the stars, then come along for the hike of a lifetime. All you have to do is take the first step.
-
-
If You Liked AWOL, You'll Like This
- By Rebecca on 06-02-16
By: Gary Sizer
-
Margarita Wednesdays
- Making a New Life by the Mexican Sea
- By: Deborah Rodriguez
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 9 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In answer to the question of what happened following her New York Times best seller Kabul Beauty School, Deborah Rodriquez is back with a new memoir Irreverent, insightful, and blatantly honest, Deborah takes us along on her inspiring journey of self-discovery and renewal after she is forced to flee Afghanistan in 2007. She first lands in California, where she feels like a misfit teetering on the brink of sanity. Where was that fearless redhead who stared danger in the face back in Kabul?
-
-
Enjoyable
- By porkypenguin on 12-19-22
-
The Book of Lost Names
- By: Kristin Harmel
- Narrated by: Madeleine Maby
- Length: 10 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lina Meisel, a retired librarian in Florida, is reading the newspaper one morning when she freezes. Her eyes lock on a photograph of a book she hasn’t seen in 65 years - a book she recognizes as The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II - an experience Lina remembers well - and the search to reunite people with the texts stolen from them so long ago. The book in the photograph is one of the most fascinating cases.
-
-
Another whiney female "heroine"
- By Patricia on 08-15-20
By: Kristin Harmel
-
See You in the Piazza
- New Places to Discover in Italy
- By: Frances Mayes
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Frances Mayes
- Length: 14 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Best-selling and beloved author Frances Mayes discovers the hidden pleasures of Italy in a sumptuous travel narrative that crisscrosses the country, with inventive new recipes celebrating Italian cuisine.
-
-
Bravo Cassandra Campbell
- By John Genzale on 05-20-19
By: Frances Mayes
-
Wildflower
- By: Drew Barrymore
- Narrated by: Drew Barrymore
- Length: 7 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Wildflower is a portrait of Drew's life in stories as she looks back on the adventures, challenges, and incredible experiences of her earlier years. It includes tales of living on her own at 14 (and how laundry may have saved her life), getting stuck in a gas station overhang on a cross-country road trip, saying good-bye to her father in a way only he could have understood, and many more adventures and lessons that have led her to the successful, happy, and healthy place she is today.
-
-
Hold the shrieking !
- By Dawne on 11-27-15
By: Drew Barrymore
-
Breakfast with Buddha
- A Novel
- By: Roland Merullo
- Narrated by: Sean Runnette
- Length: 9 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
When his sister tricks him into taking her guru on a trip to their childhood home, Otto Ringling, a confirmed skeptic, is not amused. Six days on the road with an enigmatic holy man who answers every question with a riddle is not what he'd planned. But in an effort to westernize his passenger---and amuse himself---he decides to show the monk some "American fun" along the way.
-
-
a thoughtful and often hilarious journey
- By Mary McCarthy on 09-15-11
By: Roland Merullo
-
Mean Baby
- A Memoir of Growing Up
- By: Selma Blair
- Narrated by: Selma Blair
- Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The first story Selma Blair Beitner ever heard about herself is that she was a mean, mean baby. With her mouth pulled in a perpetual snarl and a head so furry it had to be rubbed to make way for her forehead, Selma spent years living up to her terrible reputation: biting her sisters, lying spontaneously, getting drunk from Passover wine at the age of seven, and behaving dramatically so that she would be the center of attention. In a memoir that is as wildly funny as it is emotionally shattering, Blair tells the captivating story of growing up and finding her truth.
-
-
Poor little privileged girl...
- By Tesa Fisher on 09-20-22
By: Selma Blair
-
A Visit from the Goon Squad
- By: Jennifer Egan
- Narrated by: Roxana Ortega
- Length: 10 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jennifer Egan’s spellbinding interlocking narratives circle the lives of Bennie Salazar, an aging former punk rocker and record executive, and Sasha, the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Although Bennie and Sasha never discover each other’s pasts, the listener does, in intimate detail, along with the secret lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs, over many years, in locales as varied as New York, San Francisco, Naples, and Africa.
-
-
Deep and dazzling novel, brilliantly read!
- By J. W. Coop on 06-29-19
By: Jennifer Egan
-
Swing Time
- By: Zadie Smith
- Narrated by: Pippa Bennett-Warner
- Length: 13 hrs and 46 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: About rhythm and time, about Black bodies and Black music, what constitutes a tribe, or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early 20s, never to be revisited, but never quite forgotten, either. Tracey makes it to the chorus line but struggles with adult life, while her friend leaves the old neighborhood behind, traveling the world as an assistant to a famous singer, Aimee, observing close up how the one percent live.
-
-
Enthralling and instructive. A novel of the highest caliber
- By Richmond Surrey on 07-27-17
By: Zadie Smith
-
Three Weeks with My Brother
- By: Nicholas Sparks, Micah Sparks
- Narrated by: Henry Leyva
- Length: 9 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In January 2003, Nick Sparks and his brother Micah set off on a three-week trip around the world. It was to mark a milestone in their lives, for at 35 and 36, respectively, they were now the only surviving members of their family. As Nick and Micah travel the globe, the intimate story of their tragic family legacy unfolds in the details of the untimely deaths of their parents and only sister.
-
-
Personal and reflective
- By bclmb on 05-16-04
By: Nicholas Sparks, and others
-
Queen of Dreams
- By: Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni
- Narrated by: Deepti Gupta
- Length: 10 hrs and 33 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rakhi, a young painter and single mother, is struggling to come to terms with her relationship with ex-husband Sonny, a hip Bay Area DJ, and with her dreamteller mother, who has rarely spoken about her past or her native India. Rakhihas her hands full, juggling a creative dry spell, raising her daughter, and trying to save the Berkeley teahouse she and her best friend Belle own. But greater challenges are to come.
-
-
Engaging tale of family relationships
- By Amazon Customer on 03-02-21
-
Half Empty
- Essays
- By: David Rakoff
- Narrated by: David Rakoff
- Length: 6 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The inimitably witty David Rakoff, New York Times best-selling author of Don’t Get Too Comfortable, defends the commonsensical notion that you should always assume the worst, because you’ll never be disappointed. In this deeply funny (and, no kidding, wise and poignant) audiobook, Rakoff examines the realities of our sunny, gosh everyone-can-be-a-star contemporary culture and finds that, pretty much as a universal rule, the best is not yet to come, adversity will triumph, justice will not be served, and your dreams won’t come true.
-
-
A Good Friend I Never Met
- By Rodney on 08-14-12
By: David Rakoff
-
Coming Ashore
- A Memoir
- By: Catherine Gildiner
- Narrated by: Nathalie Toriel
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Picking up her story in the late '60s at age 21, Cathy whisks through seven years and three countries. Whether reciting verse in the classrooms of the University of Oxford, arranging a date with Jimi Hendrix, teaching inner-city kids literature, rooming with a major drug dealer, falling in love, or working in a psychiatric hospital, Cathy determinedly blazes her own trail through all the passion and uncertainty that comes with the cusp of adulthood.
-
-
Hit it out of the Park, Again!
- By Kindle Customer on 10-18-24
-
Nearly Normal
- Surviving the Wilderness, My Family and Myself
- By: Cea Sunrise Person
- Narrated by: Cea Sunrise Person
- Length: 9 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In her best-selling memoir North of Normal, Cea wrote with grace about her unconventional childhood - her early years living in a tipi in Alberta with her pot-smoking, free-loving counterculture family. But her struggles do not end when she leaves her family at the age of 13 to become a model. Honest and daring, Nearly Normal reveals the many ways that Cea's unconventional childhood continues to reverberate through the years.
-
-
This one is just not for me
- By Pamela Plimpton on 03-15-19
-
Good Boundaries and Goodbyes
- Loving Others Without Losing the Best of Who You Are
- By: Lysa TerKeurst
- Narrated by: Lysa TerKeurst, Jim Cress
- Length: 7 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Stop the dysfunction of unhealthy relationships and learn biblical ways to set boundaries--and, when necessary, say goodbye. Is it unloving or selfish to set a boundary with family members or friends? Are Christians ever called to walk away from a relationship that’s no longer safe or sustainable? #1 New York Times bestselling author Lysa TerKeurst deeply understands these hard questions in the midst of relational struggles.
-
-
A must read/listen!
- By prestonpreuss on 11-12-22
By: Lysa TerKeurst
-
All over the Place
- Adventures in Travel, True Love, and Petty Theft
- By: Geraldine DeRuiter
- Narrated by: Geraldine DeRuiter
- Length: 8 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Some people are meant to travel the globe, to unwrap its secrets, and share them with the world. And some people have no sense of direction, are terrified of pigeons, and get motion sickness from tying their shoes. These people are meant to stay home and eat nachos. Geraldine DeRuiter is the latter. But she won't let that stop her. Hilarious, irreverent, and heartfelt, All over the Place chronicles the years Geraldine spent traveling the world after getting laid off from a job she loved.
-
-
Couldn't finish - story of a dependant/whiny woman
- By Chelsey on 05-25-20
-
Easy Beauty
- By: Chloé Cooper Jones
- Narrated by: Chloé Cooper Jones
- Length: 10 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
So begins Chloé Cooper Jones’s bold, revealing account of moving through the world in a body that looks different than most. Jones learned early on to factor “pain calculations” into every plan, every situation. Born with a rare congenital condition called sacral agenesis which affects both her stature and gait, her pain is physical. But there is also the pain of being judged and pitied for her appearance, of being dismissed as “less than.”
-
-
Understanding Disabilities Increased
- By Gwendolyn Lewis on 06-10-22
-
Maeve in America
- Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else
- By: Maeve Higgins
- Narrated by: Maeve Higgins
- Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Maeve Higgins was a best-selling memoirist and comedian in her native Ireland when, at the grand old age of 31, she left the only home she’d ever known in search of something more. Like many women in their early 30s, she both was and was not the adult she wanted to be. At once smart, curious, and humane, Maeve in America is the story of how Maeve found herself, literally and figuratively, in New York City.
-
-
Not as advertised
- By RolliesMom on 07-12-21
By: Maeve Higgins
What listeners say about Have Mother, Will Travel
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Donna
- 08-27-12
Made me think about the mother-daughter bond
What did you like best about this story?
I enjoyed the travel elements mixed with the background to their relationship. A good listen.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Wonderlust
- 08-14-12
A must read for mom's of adult daughters!
Would you listen to Have Mother, Will Travel again? Why?
I have gotten so much from the first time, not sure I will need to.
What did you like best about this story?
It describes life after motherhood so well, also validates so much!
Which character – as performed by Claire Fontaine and Mia Fontaine – was your favorite?
Related all to well to Claire, but enjoyed Mia's take on her mom and life.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
It is laugh out loud funny. The book made me want more from my relationship with my adult daughter. No more "walking on eggshells"
Any additional comments?
Encouraging my daughter to read/listen to this book. I love when the author/authors narrate the book. So much more is shared and felt.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- C
- 09-03-12
A must-listen for mom's and daughters
Would you listen to Have Mother, Will Travel again? Why?
I identified with both the mother and the daughter, as I am a fairly new mom of a daughter. sometimes I laughed, thinking 'I'm like that' and sometimes I sat with this deep realisation that I should treasure and invest in my relationship with my mom, while she is alive.
What was one of the most memorable moments of Have Mother, Will Travel?
When both mother and daughter muster the courage to share vulnerabilities with each other.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful