Wednesday, November 17, 2010

The Forgotten Garden


   Cassandra's grandmother, Nell, has passed away and left everything to her; not only her home and antique stall in Brisbane, but also a cottage on the English coast.  Why would Nell have a home in England?, thinks Cassandra; and thus the plot for Kate Morton's novel, The Forgotten Garden, is formed.

    The story is told primarily from the perspective of three women in three time periods -- Cassandra in 2005, Nell in 1975-76, and Eliza Makepeace in 1900-1913.  It is apparent that Eliza's narrative is linked to Cassandra's and Nell's in some way, but how?  Ms Morton does a fantastic job of linking the narratives so the reader is able to put the pieces of the puzzle together themselves - not all at once, just gradually enough that you feel you must keep reading to find out more information. 

   The Forgotten Garden is not a short book - my paperback edition is 549 pages - but I found it quick and easy to read and extremely enjoyable.  It's a mystery, a love story, a tragedy, and in many ways a fairy tale; it's a great novel to escape the present day, even if only for a little while.
     

4 comments:

  1. Liked this book a lot! I liked it even better after I reread it for my blog.

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  2. I read it and really enjoyed it.

    Although it is big, it definitely wasn't challenging and it was pretty easy to figure out the mystery well before hand, but I still really liked it.

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  3. I really enjoyed The House at Riverton. Will have to check this one out, too. I'm a fan of all things told in a Gothic and haunting way.

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  4. I am entering for the Literary Hop. I was torn between this one and ROOM so I commented on both. If you have delete one of my entries, please delete this one.

    monagarg@yahoo.com

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