Omega Farm

A Memoir

By: Martha McPhee

Narrated by: Tracy Thorne

*A New Yorker and Vogue Best Book of 2023*

“Compelling... [McPhee] positions herself neither as victim nor saint but as someone who, she says, only wants to be good.” —The Washington Post

A moving memoir from an award-winning novelist—a riveting account of her complicated, bohemian childhood and her return home to care for her ailing mother.

In March 2020, Martha McPhee, her husband, and their two children set out for her childhood home in New Jersey, where she finds herself grappling simultaneously with a mother slipping into severe dementia and a house that’s fallen into neglect. As Martha works to manage her mother’s care and the sprawling, ramshackle property—a broken septic system, invasive bamboo, dying ash trees—she is swept back, unwillingly, into memories of her fraught, dysfunctional childhood.

In this masterful exploration of a complicated family legacy, McPhee “makes no effort to spare her own flaws even as she searches for the roots of her mature turmoil in the shortcomings of adults who failed in the fundamental task of protecting her younger self” (BookPage). Omega Farm is an “expansive” (New Yorker) testament to hope in the face of suffering, and a courageous tale about how returning home can offer a new way to understand the past.

Critic reviews

"Tracy Thorne narrates this memoir with respect for the emotions McPhee experienced while caring for her mother in her dilapidated childhood home near Princeton, New Jersey, during the pandemic. Thorne’s narration gives listeners a strong sense of McPhee’s dilemmas, past and present. In the present, Thorne emphasizes the frustration of having to deal with a leaking septic system and invasive bamboo with a minimal budget. Poignantly, Thorne evokes McPhee’s haunting memories of being abused by her stepfather. Ultimately, Thorne satisfyingly renders McPhee’s candid, honest tone as she comes to terms with the chaos of her childhood and, in the present, her stewardship of her land."

A book of a peculiar time.

Some of us can remember this cultural era of extreme changes. It was both liberating and terrifying. Omega Farm was not alone in it's craziness and chaos. M. McPhee is a wonderful writer.

I simply loved this book…

I am a man but there were so many things I could relate to on so many levels. Growing up in central New Jersey, early troubles in school, divorced parents at a young age. an unconventional stepfather, having a quirky “farm” (ours was on an island in Maine), concerns for our environment, caring for parents with dementia during a raging pandemic and political storm. The author is a courageous, vulnerable, smart, flawed, beautiful, woman, that puts it all out there…the good, the bad, the funny and yes, the ugly. Was hard for me to stop listening once started… I thought the narrator did an excellent job.

Loved this book

Gorgeously written and read. Feeling a family and nature entwined…and the love and realization of the world and life- overwhelming beautiful.

Love this memoir

Love everything about this book. Such a beautiful weaving together of past and present. The bonds of family and place and nature all coming together.

Model Memoir

McPhee braids together forest restoration with grief, reckoning, and reflection. She's an expert crafter. In Omega Farms McPhee makes the most of the contemporary memoir. She is kind to her characters, her current self, and her younger self.