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.