The Ballast Seed: A story of motherhood, of growing up and growing plants

The Ballast Seed is a memoir that explores the author's journey through depression after the surprise of a second pregnancy. It is a story of vulnerability, persistence, and the will to live, and how nature provided a source of healing.

Format: Hardback
Length: 208 pages
Publication date: 09 June 2022
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co

"The Ballast Seed" is a captivating novel that I couldn't put down. It's a beautiful blend of emotions, encompassing beauty, sadness, and hopefulness. The story is vivid and lush, filled with the essence of dirt, darkness, sunlight, and delicate new growth. It explores themes of vulnerability, resilience, and the unwavering will to live. This memoir is a powerful testament that will bring tears to your eyes, inspiring you to roll up your sleeves and cultivate the seeds of a new life.

Author Cal Flyn's "Islands of Abandonment" tells the remarkable story of Rosie's journey after the unexpected arrival of her second pregnancy, shortly after the birth of her first son. Faced with the daunting challenge of adding another child to her already fragile life, Rosie was compelled to find a new way of living. She discovered an innate inclination towards the local parks and communal green spaces in her south-east London neighborhood, as well as therapy through tending a hidden garden nestled within the city. Interwoven with her responses to the travel journals of an eccentric 19th-century female botanist and adventurer, Rosie elegantly depicts how these pockets of nature amidst the urban sprawl provided just the right amount to mend her broken spirit.

Weight: 314g
Dimension: 143 x 224 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781474618175