Unearthing: A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets

After her father’s death, Canadian novelist Maclear (Birds Art Love) takes a serendipitous DNA test, revealing that the man who raised her was not her biological father. To learn more, she enlists the help of a genealogical specialist—her “search angel”—to uncover possible relatives. Simultaneously, she navigates the secrets and lies from her childhood and her mother’s past, doing her best to extract seeds of truth while struggling to maintain equilibrium with her mother. The secret of Maclear’s paternity acts as a catalyst for the exploration of the mother-daughter bond. While her mother has difficulty expressing emotion, she is an avid gardener, and Maclear uses their mutual love of plants as a subtle language to communicate her feelings. The narrative is poetic, full of lyrical descriptions of events and emotions all tied to plants. As a tribute to her mother’s heritage, Maclear ties the story together with Japanese words and phrases that evoke the seasons. Maclear’s voice brings a vibrance to this self-narrated work, and her cadence furthers the lyricism of her prose.