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An unforgettable memoir about a family secret revealed by a DNA test, the lessons learned in its aftermath, and the indelible power of love—for readers of Wintering and Crying in H Mart.

The story of a long-held family secret, full of twists and turns, interwoven with a personal botanical history, Unearthing is a bold portrait of human relationships and a deeply thoughtful consideration of connection in our fragile and fractured world.

When a DNA test reveals that the father who raised her was not biologically related to her, Kyo Maclear becomes a detective in her own life, unravelling the mystery piece by piece in a search tied to the seasons, plant life, and the making of a garden.

Through its brief and beautifully composed chapters—each a portal—Maclear reflects on race and lineage, grief and loyalty, art and refuge, and the fierce and sometimes funny love between a mother and daughter, to tell a captivating and propulsive story of inheritance that goes beyond heredity.

What gets planted, and what gets buried? What role does storytelling play in unearthing the past and making sense of a life, particularly in the shadows of missed opportunities and failing memories? Can the act of tending a garden provide common ground, and even joy, for an inquisitive daughter and her reticent mother? As it seeks to answer these questions, Unearthing bursts with the very love it seeks to understand.

Unearthing book cover
Unearthing book cover
Image of Unearthing book cover

Editions:

Canada: Knopf, April 2023
US: Scribner, August 2023
UK: Pushkin Press, Spring 2024


Praise and Reviews

“In this magnificent, searing memoir, Kyo Maclear takes us on a journey that is at once singular and utterly universal. What forces contribute to who we are and who we become? And what happens when the story we know to be true of ourselves is uprooted, unearthed? In poetic language that cuts to the bone, Maclear grapples with these questions and the result is a profound reading experience. I will never forget it.”
—Dani Shapiro

Unearthing is simply staggering. Maclear takes the shocking revelations of a DNA test and transforms them into a mind-altering and supremely generous exploration of kinship, selfhood, memory, and the roots we share across time, space and species. A quantum leap for an already brilliant and profound writer and thinker.”
—Naomi Klein, author of This Changes Everything

“Maclear meditates on genealogy and family secrets in her impressive memoir… Maclear’s precise, hypnotic prose will appeal to readers of Margaret Renkl. This quiet story lingers.”
Publishers Weekly

“A deeply thoughtful meditation on secrets and stories, race and lineage, grief and grace – all told through the narrative of the common language … tending to a shared garden. As Maclear presses her reluctant mother for answers to the questions that have blown her life wide open, she comes to realize that amid the muddled memories and half-truths also lie lessons in what it takes for new things to grow – patience, pragmatism and a willingness to accept beauty (whether in flowers and plants or the ineffable bonds of family) in all its wild, unruly forms.”
Tabassum Siddiqi, The Globe and Mail

“Many memoirs have examined issues of paternity and parental infidelity, but Maclear’s stands out due to elegant writing and insightful musings on the making and shaping of identities, always with the garden behind her to provide an anchor… A lovely meditation on the hidden past and the blossoming present.”
—Kirkus Reviews

“This is a thrilling family memoir mystery that really lets the reader in on the unspooling and respooling of Kyo’s family story and a series of revelations that redefine her sense of her own family and past. But really that’s just the headlines, or the outlines of what she is up. There is something else going on… Something planty, alchemical and atmospheric that has stayed with me… this is a book that made me feel alive. I don’t want to explain its plot or structure or what I discovered by reading it. Rather I want to induce you to breath in its air.”
—Jason Logan, Toronto Ink Company

“A brilliantly told memoir about love, marriage, hope and regret—about life. …[Unearthing explores] the burden of carrying a secret … uncovering—unearthing—more than [Maclear] could ever have imagined when she began.”
Parry Sound North Star

Read an extract from Unearthing
Purchase the audiobook from Audible
A block print of a plant with broad leaves in silhouette.