1999 "First Edition" stated; Little, Brown and Company, Boston, New York; hardbound in black boards with white lettering along spine; very good condition; dust jacket very good.
 
Description -
White Oleander is a 1999 novel by American author Janet Fitch. It is a coming-of-age story about a child (Astrid) who is separated from her mother (Ingrid) and placed in a series of foster homes. It deals with themes of motherhood. The book was selected for Oprah's Book Club in May 1999, after which it became a national bestseller. It was adapted as a 2002 film.
 
Plot -
Astrid Magnussen is a 12-year-old girl living in Los Angeles, California. She lives with her mother, Ingrid Magnussen, a self-centered, cold-hearted and eccentric poet. Astrid's father, Klaus Anders, left before 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 house and poisons him with a mixture of DMSO and 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 home 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 pedophilic 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 not 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 sent to live with Ed and Marvel Turlock and their two small children, essentially as an unpaid babysitter. Astrid befriends the next-door neighbor, a beautiful African-American prostitute named Olivia...