Unearthing

Reviews / Votes

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 An alluring blend of grief, racial identity and memory * The Bookseller * Three months after the death of her father, Maclear discovered they were not biologically related but finding the truth proves difficult as her mother's language and memory are failing. Instead, mother and daughter begin to tend a garden together as Maclear begins to unearth the past * Stylist's pick of the best non-fiction for 2024 * Unearthing is a masterful lyric exploration of identity, inheritance and belonging in the wake of an unsettling discovery, that deftly queries what makes us who we are, and what happens when the stability of our foundations is challenged. It investigates nature, nurture and genetic legacies, who our parents are before and beyond us, and who we become because or despite them. Both seasonal, contemporary and spiralling through botanic and genetic time, the writing is absorbing and transformative; the story will grow through you -- Polly Atkin, author of Some of Us Just Fall: On Nature and Not Getting Better A tender and precious gift of a book, that holds out grief like an opening flower. Deeply moving, beautifully written and delicately delivered, its story holds a profound truth about the complexity and simplicity of what it is to love, and to lose, and what it means to find ourselves within both -- Victoria Bennett, author of All My Wild Mothers: Motherhood, loss and an apothecary garden I could not put this gorgeous book down. Maclear interweaves her personal and family story with that of the plants she encounters and grows, subtly revealing how knowing the truth of our own stories is an essential part of navigating a world in ecological crisis. Unearthing is the rarest kind of book: at once vulnerable and precise, gentle but unforgettable -- Jessica J. Lee, author of Two Trees Make a Forest Complex story with delicacy and charm * Mail on Sunday * As she uncovers her family history - including previously unknown Jewish ancestry - she meditates on the nature of marriage, fidelity and familial love, while seeking an affinity with the natural world and solace in a love of gardening inherited from her mother * Observer * A mind-altering journey that challenges biological determination, while rooting family in the daily practice of care and love... moving * Esquire * A moving account of a daughter's struggle to know her mother * Washington Post *