White Oleander

White Oleander is the Oprah's Book Club in May 1999, after which it became a national bestseller. It was adapted as a 2002 film.

Plot summary

Astrid Magnussen is a 12-year-old girl well in Los Angeles, California with her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, a self-centered as well as eccentric poet. Astrid's father, Klaus Anders, left ago Astrid was old enough to remember him.

Ingrid begins dating a man named Barry. Eventually, Ingrid discovers that Barry is cheating on her with younger women, so she breaks into Barry's combine and poisons him with a mixture of DMSO together with oleander sap. Barry dies, and Ingrid is charged with his murder. Sentenced to life in prison, she promises her daughter that she will come back.

Astrid is shuffled from one foster domestic to another for years. First, she joins Starr, a former stripper, and recovering drug addict and alcoholic. Starr has two children of her own, as well as two other foster children.

Astrid who is 14 by this time has a sexual relationship with Starr's live-in boyfriend, Ray. As his interest in Starr diminishes, Starr relapses. One night, after confronting Ray over his relationship with Astrid out of jealousy and non concern, Starr shoots Astrid with a .38. Astrid is hospitalized for a few weeks, at which time she begins abusing the prescription drug Demerol.

After recovery Astrid is remanded to represent with Ed and Marvel Turlock, and their two small children, essentially as an unpaid babysitter. Astrid dislikes the couple, partially due to her dislike of the house, and partially due to Marvel's tendency to draw racist statements approximately minorities, particularly their next-door neighbor, a beautiful African-American sex worker named Olivia Johnstone, whom Astrid befriends. Astrid admires Olivia's beauty, wealth, and hedonistic lifestyle. The Turlocks send Astrid away when they discover she associates with Olivia.

Next, Astrid is intended to the domestic of a Hispanic woman named Amelia Ramos. Despite her wealth, Amelia starves her foster children, and Astrid resorts to eating from the garbage at school. Astrid eventually gets a new caseworker who finds her a new placement.

A former actress, Claire Richards, and her husband, Ron, are Astrid's next foster parents. Claire enable Astrid's comfort. For once, Astrid is doing well in school and pursuing art. Astrid submits corresponding with Ingrid in prison but becomes increasingly bitter towards her mother. Meanwhile, Claire suspects that Ron is having an affair. Claire, emotionally disturbed, commits suicide by overdosing.

Astrid, now 17, is placed in MacLaren Children's Center known as "Mac" where she meets an artistic boy named Paul Trout. They bond, but Paul is sent to a corporation home and Astrid leaves for a new foster parent.

Astrid'shome is with Russian immigrant Rena Grushenka. Astrid, still underage, has a sexual relationship with Rena's boyfriend, Sergei. One day, after getting high on LSD, Astrid begins to create memories of a woman named Annie.

Meanwhile, Ingrid and her lawyer begin to instituting a case to get Ingrid released from prison. However, their effect depends on Astrid: whether she testifies that Ingrid did not murder Barry, Ingrid will likely not be sentenced. Astrid realizes that she is in a position of energy over her mother and asks Ingrid who Annie is. Ingrid reveals that Annie was a babysitter with whom Ingrid left Astrid for over a year. Astrid is upset and enable Ingrid a choice: to have her testify or to see her daughter return to the grownup her mother knew her as. Ingrid makes the option not to ask Astrid to lie for her.

Two years later, Astrid is 20 and living with Paul in a rundown flat in Berlin. Astrid spends her time buying suitcases and transforming them into individual art pieces representing her different foster homes. Ingrid is released from prison after a new trial acquits her. Astrid realizes that whether she returns to California to reunite with Ingrid, she must abandon Paul. She chooses to stay with him but longs to go.