This is the first novel of a third-generation Los Angeles resident.

Astrid longs to be loved and nurtured, a seemingly unattainable goal. Her mother, the beautiful poetess Ingrid, is obsessed with reclaiming the adoration of a short-term lover, Barry Kolker, and has no time for her daughter. Astrid is told she has no father. When a desperate act takes Astrid’s mother from her, she is placed in a series of foster homes, each one in turn creating more loneliness and uncertainty.

WHITE OLEANDER is a profoundly sad story of a young teenager experiencing the pain and vulnerability of an ambivalent mother-child relationship and the lack of a nurturing home environment. It brings alive the many cruelties people impart on others, sometimes unknowingly. Astrid’s thoughts are expressed so clearly and mirror the needs of any young girl. Beautiful imagery using flowers and fragrances abound. The people in this story are not only varied but so fully alive that it’s hard to leave one behind and move on to the next. The most haunting part of the story, though, is the character of Ingrid whose esoteric view of life is strikingly similar to white oleander, so very beautiful yet poisonous.