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Title details for The Witch's Daughter by Orenda Fink - Available

The Witch's Daughter

My Mother, Her Magic, and the Madness that Bound Us

by Orenda Fink
Orenda Fink
Audiobook
1 of 1 copy available
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1 of 1 copy available
Acclaimed indie musician and songwriter Orenda Fink's lyrical and moving memoir about growing up with a mother who battled mental illness and addiction is a "master text on surviving trauma as a child and adult" (Phoebe Bridgers).
Each night, Orenda Fink's darkly charismatic mother perches on a kitchen stool and insists that she and Orenda are magic. Orenda's mother claims to be a witch who uses her magic to protect the family from the outside world, but Orenda's childhood is marked by instability and uncertainty. Her family moves from town to town, chasing a fresh start whenever the money runs out.

Orenda escapes to pursue a music career in Birmingham, Alabama, and then Athens, Georgia, forming the bands Little Red Rocket and Azure Ray. The magic she finds in her music, and in her sense of self, feels precious and rare, while the magic her mother wields feels increasingly volatile. Orenda orbits the family home, always drawn back by her mother's dark powers and her own need to discover whether that claim of magic—or any magic—is real.

With the guidance of a Jungian psychotherapist, Orenda is stunned to learn that her mother fits many of the criteria associated with borderline personality disorder, including a subtype identified by famed thought leader Christine Ann Lawson known as "The Witch"—an aggressive, dominating figure who operates by fear-driven control, sometimes claiming to wield magic. Told in spellbinding prose, this memoir of music, self-discovery, and compassion is for anyone who has had to conjure a safe place to call home.

"Equal parts cutting and compassionate, this tale of hard-won peace will resonate with readers wrestling with their own complicated families" (Publishers Weekly).

  • Creators

  • Publisher

  • Release date

    August 6, 2024

  • Formats

    • OverDrive Listen audiobook

      • ISBN: 9781797182186
      • File size: 261003 KB
      • Duration: 09:03:45

  • Languages

    • English

  • Reviews

    • Publisher's Weekly

      June 17, 2024
      In this riveting debut, Azure Ray singer Fink chronicles her chaotic relationship with her mother and the process of repairing the damage it caused. During Fink’s Alabama childhood, her mother claimed to be a witch, chalking up her erratic behavior and hot-and-cold treatment of friends and family to manifestations of her powerful magic. In the early 1990s, Fink fled her unstable home for Birmingham, Ala., to start the band Little Red Rocket. Still, her mother’s emotional manipulation and her father’s meekness consistently pulled Fink back home. She broke free for good in 2019, when she settled in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and, while working with a Jungian psychotherapist, recognized her mother’s behavior as a symptom of undiagnosed borderline personality disorder. Though Fink highlights how writing this account helped her “face biggest fears,” she delivers far more than a therapeutic exercise—her lyrical prose and keen imagery lend the proceedings undeniable weight. Equal parts cutting and compassionate, this tale of hard-won peace will resonate with readers wrestling with their own complicated families. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell, YRG Partners.

Formats

  • OverDrive Listen audiobook

subjects

Languages

  • English

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