The Witch's Daughter: My Mother, Her Magic, and the Madness that Bound Us

Summary

Acclaimed indie musician and songwriter Orenda Fink’s lyrical and moving memoir about growing up with a mother who battled mental illness and addiction and her journey to reclaim her voice through art and self-discovery 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).