In the Rhododendrons: A Memoir with Appearances by Virginia Woolf

Heather Christle

'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