Thirteen-year-old Astrid Magnussen has to grow up quickly when her beautiful, mercurial mother murders her lover (with the poison from oleander flowers) and is sentenced to life in prison. Astrid is raised in a series of foster homes-...

When Michael, an L.A. artist, commits suicide it brings together two utterly unalike women: Michael's severe and dominating concert-pianist mother and his punk girlfriend. As in her pitch-perfect WHITE OLEANDER, Janet Fitch weaves dar...