White Oleander

AN OPRAH’S BOOK CLUB PICK• A 2002 FEATURE FILM

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.

• “Liquid poetry.”
  Oprah Winfrey
• “A ferocious, risk-taking novel . . . intimate and epic.”
  Los Angeles Times
• “Emotionally gripping . . . eerily seductive.”
  Boston Globe
• “White 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 gripping.”
  New York Times Book Review
• “A truly gifted writer . . . Astrid's journey is much, much more than the gripping, page-turning adventure of a young hero tripping through life. It is life.”
  Denver Post
• “White Oleander is likely to be the best debut this reviewer has ever read . . . Heartbreaking, but without a trace of sentimentality, it provokes amazement.”
  Library Journal (STARRED REVIEW)
• “White Oleander resonates with commitment to no other master than the art of storytelling itself.”
  Seattle Times
• “A stunning debut novel . . . startlingly original . . . The Reader enters an imaginative world as deep as the forest . . . Ingrid and Astrid are two of the freshest, most engaging characters to appear in recent memory.”
  San Francisco Chronicle
• “Janet Fitch writes with breathtaking beauty about the central theme of our age: the search for self. White Oleander is a remarkable debut novel.”
  Robert Olen Butler, Author of A GOOD SCENT FROM A STRANGE MOUNTAIN
• “A dazzling debut, a triumph of voice and character . . . White Oleander is the moving and complex story of Astrid's journey through six foster homes across southern California, each one an unnerving snapshot of American family life. Fitch's prose is fresh and evocative . . . Stunning.”
  Bloomsbury Review