In the Rhododendrons

'In a memoir that pulses with feeling and intelligence, [Christle] excavates the past to expose difficult truths' Guardian When Heather Christle realises 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. During a rare moment of vulnerability, Christle's mother shares a memory of assault as a child growing up in London. This instant of shock and recognition sends Christle down a rabbit hole into her mother's past. From Kew Gardens to the British Library and Bloomsbury, Christle's journey takes her deep into her family mythologies and her own buried memories. All the while, she finds that Virginia Woolf and her writings not only seem to connect and overlap with her mother's story, but also that Woolf becomes a kind of vital intermediary: a sometimes confidante, sometimes mentor, sometimes distancing lens through which Christle can safely observe her mother and their experiences. In the Rhododendrons is part memoir, part biography of Virginia Woolf, part reckoning with the things we cannot change and the ways we can completely transform, if we dare. This utterly original book will stir readers into new ways of seeing their own lives. 'Heartbreaking, revelatory, exquisite, and ultimately ecstatic, this book is a gift' Jessamine Chan, author of The School for Good Mothers

HEATHER CHRISTLE is the author of The Crying Book (Corsair), a New York Times Editor's Choice, Indie Next selection, and national bestseller that was translated into eight languages, awarded the Georgia Book Award for memoir, and adapted for radio by the BBC. An Associate Professor of English and Creative Writing at Emory University, Christle is also the author of five poetry collections including Paper Crown and The Trees The Trees, which won the Believer Book Award and was adapted into a ballet by the Pacific Northwest Ballet. Her writing has been published in The Believer, Elle, Granta, London Review of Books, and the New Yorker. In 2021 she was the recipient of a George A. and Eliza Gardner Howard Foundation Fellowship in non-fiction.