Hey there, bookworms! Happy Tuesday! I don’t know about you, but my body and mind is tricking me into thinking it’s already Thursday or Friday because I feel so run down. It has to be the weather and the darkness that comes with winter because I feel like I’m dragging and have been out of sorts for months now. November, at the very least.
Anyway, as I’m behind on writing my blog posts, I’m behind on my reading as well. I guess all the craziness of the holidays followed by turning another year older will do that to a girl. As I play catch up on all fronts, I wanted to bring you guys my latest review. I’m sure some of you who follow this blog are not shocked it’s another one by Kristin Hannah, but I had it sitting in my Audible queue and was too tempted to pass it up. That being said, let’s talk about Winter Garden.
From the author of the smash-hit bestseller Firefly Lane and True Colors comes a powerful, heartbreaking novel that illuminates the intricate mother-daughter bond and explores the enduring links between the present and the past.
Meredith and Nina Whitson are as different as sisters can be. One stayed at home to raise her children and manage the family apple orchard: the other followed a dream and traveled the world to become a famous photojournalist. But when their beloved father falls ill, Meredith and Nina find themselves together again, standing alongside their cold, disapproving mother, Anya, who even now, offers no comfort to her daughters. As children, the only connection between them was the Russian fairy tale Anya sometimes told the girls at night. On his deathbed, their father extracts a promise from the women in his life: the fairy tale will be told one last time – and all the way to the end. Thus begins an unexpected journey into the truth of Anya’s life in war-torn Leningrad, more than five decades ago. Alternating between the past and present, Meredith and Nina will finally hear the singular, harrowing story of their mother’s life, and what they learn is a secret so terrible and terrifying that it will shake the very foundation of their family and change who they believe they are.
I’m sure I’ve said it before, but if I haven’t I’ll say it now. Hannah is incapable of telling a bad story. Every word she writes is absolutely captivating. I had just come off my third re-read of The Bronze Horseman by Paullina Simons when I picked up a copy of Winter Garden because I was having all sorts of feelings for good, old, Leningrad. While it was awhile from the time the book hit my personal bookshelf until I got to read/listen to it, I’m so glad I eventually did.
Winter Garden is an emotional journey of self exploration, self-love and acceptance, and the eventual strength of a family bond. Once their father takes ill, Nina, Meredith, and Anya are forced to take a long, hard look at their lives and decide it is now or never to become a unit. It takes a lot of pushing each other’s buttons, shutting out work and others in their lives, and realizing that life is short before they start making any progress.
Meredith and Nina come to the realization that their childhood and their mother’s aloofness towards them is what shaped their entire adult lives. Anya has a past that she isn’t willing to face, even in her eighties. It’s only Nina’s persistence with the help of Russian vodka that Anya slowly but surely opens up. What her daughters hear is a story they are beyond unprepared to comprehend.
Getting their mother’s difficult past out in the open helps them work through their issues, and not only do the girls learn lessons to implement in their own lives moving forward, but they also understand why Anya has always been the way she has around them. Best of all, they forgive her. A traumatic young life crippled the way their mother lived for decades, and the only regret the girls seem to have once they know the truth is that they didn’t know sooner so they could help their mom cope.
Flashing between past and present, I felt like I traveled the globe with this poor, broken family. From their home base in Washington, to war-torn Russia, Alaska, and time on the open water during a cruise, the landscape aides in the characters’ healing.
This story broke my heart, but I felt it was such an important one to tell. It had history, drama, trauma, family, and psychological ways to heal in times of immense pain and suffering. I finished this book while I was at work and I had to hold back tears at having been on such an amazing, emotional journey with such powerful women and the ties they formed.
If you have not done so already, please do yourselves a favor and read this gorgeous novel! Until next time, bibliophiles!
My Final rating: five out of five stars
