Mother Is a Place

A story of growing toward motherhood via chosen family, sickness, literature, and nature. When Amra Brooks' parents split, so did her life--half lived with her queer, punk, addict dad in Los Angeles, and half with her struggling mom in Santa Cruz. With a poetic tone and an eye for rough beauty, Mother is a Place details one girl's dogged search for safety and care, a pursuit that brings her from idyllic literary studies to nannying for an iconic, out-of-control rock star, from her mysteriously collapsing body to the defiant tenderness of motherhood. Says Girlhood author Melissa Febos, Mother Is a Place is "a beautiful and finely told story of becoming, this memoir is both map and guide--to bearing what we are given, the path to home, and all that is possible to build ourselves."