The Witch’s Daughter: My Mother, Her Magic, and the Madness That Bound Us

In this riveting debut, Azure Ray singer Fink chronicles her chaotic relationship with her mother and the process of repairing the damage it caused. During Fink’s Alabama childhood, her mother claimed to be a witch, chalking up her erratic behavior and hot-and-cold treatment of friends and family to manifestations of her powerful magic. In the early 1990s, Fink fled her unstable home for Birmingham, Ala., to start the band Little Red Rocket. Still, her mother’s emotional manipulation and her father’s meekness consistently pulled Fink back home. She broke free for good in 2019, when she settled in Twentynine Palms, Calif., and, while working with a Jungian psychotherapist, recognized her mother’s behavior as a symptom of undiagnosed borderline personality disorder. Though Fink highlights how writing this account helped her “face [her] biggest fears,” she delivers far more than a therapeutic exercise—her lyrical prose and keen imagery lend the proceedings undeniable weight. Equal parts cutting and compassionate, this tale of hard-won peace will resonate with readers wrestling with their own complicated families. Agent: Yfat Reiss Gendell, YRG Partners. (Aug.)