Continuing my summer reading theme of books recommended by others, I am absolutely shook by this book. I reviewed Hannah's novel The Four Winds during the Rona here, and I admit to being a bit skeptical as she seems overly wordy sometimes. This was suggested by another client in my hair salon, and when I posted the picture our Board of Education Chair replied she loved it.
I did too.
It is slow to start. Meredith is the heir to a very successful apple orchard, mother to two college age daughters (both attending highly selective universities) and married to her high school sweetheart Jeff (although their relationship is more friend than lover these days). Her parents live nearby, and she visits her doting but ailing father Evan and exceptionally cold mother Anya regularly. Nina is the younger wild child, currently a journalism photographer in Africa. When Evan passes, Anya seemingly goes off the deep end. Doctors think it's just grief, but Meredith thinks dementia is setting in. Evan's final request is that Nina and Meredith convince Anya to tell a fairy tale story from long ago.
It isn't until Anya starts telling the fairy tale does the story really begin. I was honestly getting annoyed with Meredith and Jeff's marital woes, and Nina's, I think, Australian, boyfriend.
But then, wow. Anya tells a fairy tale that devolves rapidly into what her daughters realize is an autobiography of her youth in Stalin's Leningrad. And their mother is NOT who they think she is. I can tell you, as a mother, parts of this story had me sobbing. Ugly crying. And the plot twist at the end? Shocking.
This is a definite recommend from me!
A reminder all opinions on this blog are solely those of Mrs. W. and do not represent those of WHHS or WHPS.
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