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  • Unearthing

  • A Story of Tangled Love and Family Secrets
  • By: Kyo Maclear
  • Narrated by: Kyo Maclear
  • Length: 9 hrs and 43 mins

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Unearthing

By: Kyo Maclear
Narrated by: Kyo Maclear
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Publisher's summary

WINNER OF THE 2023 GOVERNOR GENERAL'S LITERARY AWARD FOR NONFICTION

For fans of Crying in H Mart and Wintering, an unforgettable memoir about a family secret revealed by a DNA test, the lessons learned in its aftermath, and the indelible power of love.

Three months after Kyo Maclear’s father dies in December 2018, she gets the results of a DNA test showing that she and the father who raised her are not biologically related. Suddenly Maclear becomes a detective in her own life, unravelling a family mystery piece by piece, and assembling the story of her biological father. Along the way, larger questions arise: what exactly is kinship? And what does it mean to be a family?

Thoughtful in its reflections on race and lineage, unflinching in its insights on grief and loyalty, Unearthing is 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? Can the humble act of tending a garden provide common ground for an inquisitive daughter and her complicated mother? As it seeks to answer these questions, Unearthing bursts with the very love it seeks to understand.

©2023 Kyo Maclear (P)2023 Knopf Canada
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Critic reviews

“In recursive, often incantatory prose, Maclear meditates on the fragile nature of kinship and memory. A finely plotted and intricate narrative, Unearthing reimagines the garden metaphor and explores the porous grounds of self, culture and belonging. This quiet, arresting work softens the line between memoir and philosophy.”—Peer assessment committee for the 2023 Governor General’s Literary Award for Nonfiction: KatłĮà Lafferty, Lorri Neilsen Glenn and Rinaldo Walcott

"Poetic, elliptical. . . . By pairing the untangling of her family tree with an appreciation of the entanglement of the natural world, Maclear meditates on our desire to impose clear-cut boundaries on what comprises kinship and inheritance, and reminds us of our belonging to larger ecosystems. . . . Unique. . . . Bringing in the botanical allows Maclear to imbue her family's story . . . with a generous, open-handed perspective."—NPR

“For months I have been feeling like I am keeping the most wonderful secret: the transformative brilliance and beauty of Kyo Maclear's new book. . . . Extraordinary . . . a memoir of secrets, lies, and deep connections unlike any I have read before."—Naomi Klein (via Twitter)

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