Roots: on the intertwining of life and family secrets

In the new novel, Canadian writer Kyo Maclear, author of several children's books and the ornithological autofiction "Birds, Art, Life" (2017), continues to explore the boundary between nature and culture, placing her family's private history at the center of the artistic narrative. Three months after her father's death, she takes a DNA test and discovers that he was not her biological relative. Her mother, an immigrant from Japan, remains silent, either unable to find the right words or unwilling to stir up the past. In her attempts to understand her mother, who is passionate about gardening, the protagonist turns to the world of flowers and plants. Maclear embarks on an imaginative journey through the gardens of her life, following the Japanese calendar, which is divided not into seasons but into twenty-four minor seasons — sekki: pure light, cold dews, bread rains… — to find a common language that will help not only to unravel the family secret but also to answer deeper questions: what is kinship and what does it mean to be family?