The Dark-Robed Mother is a striking blend of memoir and poetry, grappling with a cyclical “high-functioning” depression and its profound impact on self and family. It is also a modern descent into the underworld, reckoning with the myth of Demeter and Persephone as it unfolds through lived experience. Poet Rachel Tzvia Back draws on this ancient story of loss, return, and the aching bond between generations to illuminate her journey through decades of living, writing, and mothering with depression. She also explores family history and interviews each of her own children as she seeks to understand depression’s mark from generation to generation.

Threading myth through memoir, poetry through prose, Back confronts the question: how do we survive seasons of despair? And can we break the cycles that bind us to sorrow? Singular memories stand out as navigational “cairns,” and the book calls on the poetry of other writers, summoning language to help retrieve oneself from the depths. The Dark-Robed Mother is a rare work of intellect and tenderness—a searching, intimate account of the importance of stories, language, and imagination.

“The Dark-Robed Mother is a powerful exploration of motherhood, religion, grief, illness, and family. With poetic beauty and emotional intelligence, Rachel Tzvia Back offers a deeply honest and complex portrait of depression.”
—Rachel Louise Moran, author of Blue: A History of Postpartum Depression in America