Description

A STYLIST BEST NON-FICTION PICK

‘A lucid and compelling memoir of family rupture and repair’ Sue Stuart-Smith, author of The Well Gardened Mind

‘Gorgeous and generous . . . a mind-altering journey that challenges biological determination’ Naomi Klein, Esquire

Three months after Kyo Maclear’s father dies, a DNA test reveals that they were not biologically related. All at once Kyo’s silver-haired mother becomes a mystery to her; she holds the story of a secret buried for half a century, but her memories are fading, and words are failing them both.

Maclear does not speak Japanese and so to unearth the past, she must turn to her mother’s second fluent tongue: gardening. Unearthing is a memoir written in the wild green language of soil, seed, leaf and mulch. With exquisite illustrations by the author, this is a tribute to the ineradicable love between a mother and daughter.

Publisher Review

‘A lucid and compelling memoir of family rupture and repair and the power of plants to anchor us in the world’ – Sue Stuart-Smith, author of the Sunday Times Bestseller The Well Gardened Mind

‘Magnificent…I will never forget it’ – Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance: A Memoir of Genealogy, Paternity, and Love

‘A mind-altering and supremely generous exploration of kinship, selfhood, memory, and the roots we share across time, space and species’ – Naomi Klein, author of The Shock Doctrine and This Changes Everything

‘A lyrical and at times cryptic meditation on nature, kinship and the lives of both humans and plants’ – New Statesman

‘In this beautiful book Kyo Maclear unravels the knotty stories we inherit – and create – about who we are and where we come from. With deftness and clarity she ranges from meditations on memory, belonging and truth, to the earthy tangibility of the garden. Fierce, loving, inquisitive, devastating – this book got under my nails and into my heart. I loved it’ – Lulah Ellender, author of Grounding