Surface Tension: A Memoir

Surface tension is a term from physics: the invisible force that allows water to hold its shape, to resist what tries to enter it. Elizabeth Borrowed it to describe something she felt long before she had words for it – the way family difficulty creates a kind of membrane around a child, one that love cannot easily cross.
Part memoir, part excavation, this book traces the fault lines of a multigenerational family through the clear-eyed memory of the girl who watched it all, and the woman who finally penned the words. By turns heartfelt, searching, and luminous, Surface Tension is a meditation on what it means to grow up inside a world where love is not accessible—and learn what it takes to open and accept love offered.