White Oleander (Paperback)

As Astrid bumps from trailer park to tract house to Hollywood bungalow, White Oleander uncoils her existential anxieties. "Who was I, really?" she asks. "I was the sole occupant of my mother's totalitarian state, my own personal history rewritten to fit the story she was telling that day. There were so many missing pieces." Fitch adroitly leads Astrid down a path of sorting out her past and identity. In the process, this girl develops a wire-tight inner strength, gains her mother's white-blonde beauty, and achieves some measure of control over their relationship. Even from prison, Ingrid tries to mould her daughter. Foiling her, Astrid learns about tenderness from one foster mother and how to stand up for herself from another. Like the weather in Los Angeles--the winds of the Santa Anas, the scorching heat--Astrid's teenage life is intense. Fitch's novel deftly displays that, and also makes Astrid's life meaningful. --Katherine Anderson --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review
'Hard-hitting, compelling and brilliantly written' COSMOPOLITAN 'Graceful' THE TIMES 'Poignant, virtuosic and utterly captivating' PUBLISHERS WEEKLY 'Extraordinary ... Her prose is full of startling images, snippets of poetry and one magnificent, blisteringly angry "found" poem. This highly impressive debut takes on all the big themes' OBSERVER 'Tangled, complex and extraordinarily written' OBSERVER

With an adored (unorthodox) mother, 12-year-old Astrid is used to poetry readings, tarot cards and lovers that never stay the night, and begins to understand why men are attracted to her mother's ethereal beauty, her pale skin, blonde hair and the trace of a Swedish accent. Their flat in Los Angeles is the centre of Astrid's world - until her mother is imprisoned for life for murder. Suddenly Astrid is a foster child, thrust into a totally changed reality of drugs, guns, suicide and dysfunctional families. Described by the publishers as a 'painfully beautiful first novel about a young girl growing up the hard way', this story of Astrid's fierce determination to survive is by turns moving, haunting, passionate and totally compelling. An unforgettable read. (Kirkus UK)

A first-rate debut about a teenaged girl's arduous six-year journey of self-discovery. Astrid is 12 when her beloved mother, the poet Ingrid Magnussen, murders a former lover and is sent to jail. Her father long gone, Astrid ends up in foster care, moving through dysfunctional households across southern California. Only Claire Richards, actress wife of a wealthy TV producer, seems to offer a real family life as she nurtures Astrid's academic and artistic abilities. But the Richards home has deep emotional fissures, skillfully exploited by Ingrid, who keeps jealous watch over her daughter by letter. Weak, neurotic Claire succumbs, and Astrid's last foster home is a chaotic crash-pad overseen by a Russian immigrant engaged in various semi-legal hustles. Meanwhile, Ingrid has become a feminist cause clebere with naive young disciples and a media-savvy lawyer working to get her a new trial. The embittered Astrid wants no part of this effort, and in jailhouse confrontation challenges Ingrid to prove that she regrets her destructive role and will try to make amends for the hard times she's caused her daughter. Despite melodramatic plot twists, the foster homes provide a nicely eclectic panorama of late 20th-century American life and a revealing stage for Astrid's growth and personal struggles. She's an appealing protagonist, smart and vulnerable, though her formidable mother is even more intriguing, and the author brilliantly delineates the woman's complexity through her letters, which are masterpieces of epistolary voice and character development. Fitch displays remarkable artistic and psychological maturity throughout, skillfully making use of metaphors (like the beautifully poisonous oleander, Ingrid's signature flower) to illuminate her central theme: the longing for order and connection in a world where even the most intimate bonds can be broken in an instant. The author allows her protagonist to achieve adulthood, love, an artistic vocation, and some semblance of inner peace without scanting the scars she will always carry. Vigorous, polished prose, strong storytelling, satisfyingly complex characters, and thoughtfully nuanced perceptions: an impressive debut indeed. (Kirkus Reviews)

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