The Sun and Her Flowers

"Titles always just comes. It’s not even something I’ve ever had to think about" states Kaur.[1] The author decided to title the book this way just because she felt in love with the way that sunflowers worship with the sun, how they rise with the sun and then they follow the sun around. Kaur explains that was such a beautiful representation of love and relationships: the sun could represent a woman and the flowers could be the relationships that she has through life. All in all, it is a very multi-dimensional representative book. [2]

The book is divided into five sections reflecting the life cycle of a flower, with chapters titled: Wilting, Falling, Rooting, Rising, and Blooming. It focuses on themes of love and loss, trauma and abuse, healing, femininity and the body. Wilting touches on the subject of heartbreak and loss. Falling focuses on depressive feelings following the loss of an important relationship. Rooting explores topics of female infanticide, immigration and borders. Blooming addresses the joy Kaur finally found coming to love and accept her roots, herself, and the world around her. She also comes to realize her mission in this world: equality and love for all genders, races and backgrounds.[3][4][5]

At first, the book was supposed to look a lot different: it was going to be a true chapter book in which the first chapter would have been the darkness and it would have taken the readers through the experience of an unhealty love taking into account what that makes a person feel and how that defines a person’s lens. The second chapter would have been the light and it would have been about a healthy relationship and what was it like. However, Kaur was not really inspired about it because she was writing about death and immigration whereas she wanted to talk about love. Finally Kaur decided to write whatever feeling that was coming to her mind.[6]

After self-publishing her first novel, Milk and Honey, Kaur signed a two-book deal with Simon and Schuster.[7] Due to Milk and Honey selling two million copies and being on The New York Times Best Sellers list for over a year, Kaur found it extremely difficult to start creating her second collection of poetry. She attempted to begin the new book's journey for months, but nothing she wrote satisfied her expectations.[8] Kaur's goal throughout The Sun and Her Flowers ended up focusing on "the corrective experience" that occurs in unhealthy relationships. She expressed her love for the poems about death, mainly because death has been something she's been contemplating for quite a while.[9] Discussing her first book Milk and Honey—a collection of poems that tackles tough themes such as rape, violence, alcoholism, trauma—Kaur described The Sun and Her Flowers as a grown-up version, that would be deeper and more emotional.[10] The novel mainly sold with the YA age group whereas many of the poems are written about topics such as heartbreak and rebuilding yourself after. As of June of 2018 the novel has sold over 3 million copies and has been translated into over 35 languages.