A researched memoir in essays that explores what objects can tell us about our history, our culture, and the people around us One February morning, Kathryn DeZur receives a disturbing email from a stalker. She makes the difficult decision to move her family away from the first real home she's ever known. Deciding what to keep and what to leave behind brings back memories of her childhood: the mother who died of alcoholism and the father who wasn't there when DeZur needed him most. What follows is part memoir, part meditation on the many possessions-and traumas-we inherit. In the absence of control, we turn to objects: a childhood doll, an antique revolver, a mother's silk dress. All serve as evidence of our own lived experience. DeZur illuminates how our possessions situate us on a continuum between the past and present. Objects of Affection is about the identity we build through our attachments to places and things, both here and absent.