Blackberry Winter

I am illegitimate. But this was never a problem for me—it was just me and my mother against the world. Mother never told me much about her past, and after a couple of unanswered questions in childhood, I stopped asking. Now, Mother is sick, and she’s decided to revisit the past—literally—by taking an unexpected trip to the mountains where she was born.

I was worried; I was scared. I followed her. And my mother’s journey became my journey, too. I discovered that I have a father—and my parents...