In the Rhododendrons: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Woolf

For readers of Also a Poet, Orwell's Roses, and My Autobiography Of Carson McCullers--as well as the legions of Virginia Woolf fanatics--the acclaimed poet and author of The Crying Book crafts a deeply moving, immersive, and lyrical hybrid memoir about her mother, Woolf, and the transformative power of writing. When Heather Christle realizes that she, her mother, and Virginia Woolf share a traumatic history, she begins to rewrite and intertwine each of their stories, in search of a more hopeful narrative and a future she can live with. On a recent visit to London's Kew Gardens, Christle's mother revealed details of a painful story from her past that took place there, under circumstances that strangely paralleled Heather's own sexual assault during a visit to London as a teenager. Her private, British mother's revelation--a rare burst of vulnerability in their strained relationship--propels Christle down a deep and destabilizing rabbit hole of investigation, as she both reads and