White Oleander: A Novel [Paperback]

The unforgettable story of a young woman's odyssey through a series of Los Angeles foster homes on her journey to redemption.

Liquid poetry. Oprah Winfrey

Astrid is the only child of a single mother, Ingrid, a brilliant, obsessed poet who wields her beauty to intimidate and manipulate. Astrid worships her mother and cherishes their private world of ritual and mystery. But their idyll is shattered when Astrid's mother murders a lover, and is sentenced to prison for life.

Hailed as a novel of rare beauty and power, White Oleander follows Astrid through a a series of foster homes and her efforts to find a place for herself in the world. Each home is its own universe, with a new set of laws and lessons. Astrid's journey investigates the nature of the mother-daughter bond, burgeoning sexuality, the redemptive powers of art, and the unstoppable force of self-discovery.

An Oprah's Book Club pick A 2002 feature film starring Michelle Pfeiffer

Janet Fitch is the author of the novelsWhite Oleander(Little Brown, 1999), an Oprah Book club selection translated into 24 languages and made into a feature motion picture,Paint It Black(Little, Brown 2006), also widely translated and made into a feature film, andThe Revolution of Marina M.(Little, Brown 2017) set during the years of the Russian Revolution. A fourth novel completing Marina's story,Chimes of a Lost Cathedral,will be published by Little, Brown in summer 2019. Fitch lives in her hometown of Los Angeles with her writer husband Andrew Nicholls.

Liquid poetry.Oprah WinfreyA ferocious, risk-taking novel . . . intimate and epic.Los Angeles TimesEmotionally gripping . . . eerily seductive.Boston GlobeWhite oleander, a beautiful but poisonous plant, is a metaphor for motherhood in this impressive first novel . . . Fitch's startlingly apt language relates a story that is both intelligent and grlc!