Uprooting

Marchelle Farrell

From Shelf: Wainwright 2024 Nature Writing Shortlist

Winner of the Nan Shepherd Prize, this lyrical book moves between Trinidad and an idyllic English country garden as it grapples with big questions about what we call home

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WAINWRIGHT PRIZE What is home? It's a question that has troubled Marchelle Farrell for her entire life. Years ago she left Trinidad and now, uprooted once again, she heads to the peaceful English countryside - the only Black woman in her village.Drawn to her new garden, Marchelle begins to examine the complex and emotional question of home in the context of colonialism. As her relationship with the garden deepens, she discovers that her two conflicting identities are far more intertwined than she had realised. Full of hope and healing, Uprooting is a book about finding home where we least expect it, and which invites us to reconnect to the land - and ourselves.