On Tour 5/11/21-7/30/21 “When She Comes Back” by Ronit Plank

Release Date: May 11,2021

About The Book:

Abandoned By Her Mother

Ronit was six years old when her mother left her and her four year old sister for India to follow a cult guru. Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, whose commune was responsible for the largest biological attack on U.S. soil, preached that children were hindrances and encouraged sterilizations among his followers. Luckily Ronit’s father, who’d left the family the previous year, stepped up and brought the girls to live with him first in Newark, New Jersey, and later in Flushing, Queens. On the surface, his nurturing was the balm Ronit sought, but she soon paid a second emotional price, taking on the role of partner and confidant to him, and substitute mother to her sister. By the end of her childhood, Ronit would discover she had lost her mother and the close and trusting relationship she once had with her father. Though they have had a relationship now for years, she grappled with the toll her mother’s leaving took, measuring her self-worth by her absence.

When She Comes Back is the story of a family trying to find itself, grownups who don’t know how to be adults, and the pain a child feels when she discovers that her love for her mother is not enough to make that parent stay. When She Comes Back is also a story of resilience and reconciliation, how rejection by the most important person in Ronit’s life ultimately led to an unflagging commitment to, and love for her own children.

About The Author:

Ronit Plank is the author of WHEN SHE COMES BACK a coming-of-age memoir about the loss of her mother to the guru Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh to be released May 2021. Her essays have been featured in The Atlantic, The Washington Post, The HuffPost, and The Rumpus among others and her short stories have won prizes and/or special mention in The Iowa Review, American Literary Review, Narrative Magazine, Third Coast Magazine, and Hunger Mountain. Her short story collection HOME IS A MADE-UP PLACE won Hidden River Arts’ 2020 Eludia Award for fiction and will be published by Sowilo Press in early 2022.

She holds a Master of Fine Arts in Nonfiction from Pacific University and is the host and creator of the award-winning podcast And Then Everything Changed featuring interviews with survivors, authors, and thought leaders about the pivotal moments in their lives and decisions that have defined them.

Links to her work and more information: www.ronitplank.com

Social Media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RonitPlankCreative

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ronitplank/

Twitter https://twitter.com/RonitPlank

Linked In https://www.linkedin.com/in/ronitplank/

Book Blurbs: 

Artfully written, When She Comes Back is the powerful account of Ronit Plank’s childhood, from her earliest years of communal living within an Israeli kibbutz, to the tumultuous years in NYC while her absent mother followed Bhagwan Shree Rajneesh, the guru and now infamous sex-cult leader from the Netflix documentary Wild Wild Country. In this fascinating coming-of-age memoir, Ronit Plank poignantly explores the resilience of a child longing for her mother and ultimately leads us along her path to reconciliation. When She Comes Back is a stunning debut. – Jason Allen, Author of The East End

When She Comes Back tells the almost unbelievable story of a girl left behind by a mother who fell into the thrall of one of the most infamous cult leaders of the 20th century, following the Bhagwan Shri Rajneesh to India, then the doomed Oregon featured in the documentary “Wild, Wild Country,” while her two young children grew up in the company of various relatives and a father who wasn’t finished growing up himself. Despite the extraordinary circumstances of her childhood, Plank’s story will feel relatable to anyone who has ever wondered if their family is “normal,” or experienced the more routine childhood trauma of divorce. Empathetic, richly detailed, and self-aware, When She Comes Back is a heartbreaking, hopeful story about loss, resilience, and growing up too soon. – Erica C. Barnett, Author of Quitter

“A beautifully written and wrenching story of abandonment and resilience, When She Comes Back grabbed me by the heart. I could not put this powerful memoir down.” – Aspen Matis, bestselling author of Your Blue Is Not My Blue and Girl in the Woods

Bloggers On Tour:

May 11th – Cassie’s Book Reviews https://instagram.com/cassies_books_reviews  

May 31st-  Plains Reading https://instagram.com/plains_reading

June 4th –  Jayme Reads https://instagram.com/jayme_reads

June 5th – Just Another Chapter And Tea https://instagram.com/just.another.chapter.and.tea

June 7th – Nurse Bookie https://instagram.com/nurse_bookie

June 10th – Randi Reads https://instagram.com/randi_reads

June 25th – She Just Loves Books https://instagram.com/shejustlovesbooks

June 27th – Rajivs Reviews https://instagram.com/rajivsreviews

July 20th – Rozier Reads and Wine https://instagram.com/rozierreadsandwine

July 25th -Geaux Get Lit https://instagram.com/geauxgetlit

July 30th -David L Morgan https://instagram.com/david_l_morgan