THE CORNER BOOK BLOG

Friday, August 7, 2009

The Forgotten Garden


My latest read is The Forgotten Garden by Kate Morton. Ms. Morton is quickly becoming a favorite author. She's only published two books and I have devoured them both and loved them immensely.

The Forgotten Garden is the story of Nell, a four year old girl found on the docks of Australia in 1913. All she had with her was a small white suitcase with a couple of dresses and a book of fairy tales.

Not far into the story Nell's grand-daughter Cassandra picks up the search for Nell's true identity.

Told in the same fashion as Ms. Morton's first novel The House At Riverton (reviewed below) this story changes time frames and personal perspectives with each chapter.

In the present we follow Cassandra from Australia to England in the quest to discover who Nell really is. Nell's (adoptive) father tells her the truth of how she became his daughter on her 21st birthday. Nell passes away (as a quite old woman) not far into the story and leaves Cassandra some clues and a gift labeled "for Cassandra, who will know why" that send Cassandra off to England in search of answers.

The characters are richly draw and the chapters form a sort of puzzle waiting to be put together to reveal the picture of Nell's parentage.

I think one of the things I really like about Ms. Morton's writings is that I can't figure them out. So many books I read I figure out the end before the book gets to it. But not with these. Each time I thought I knew - I really didn't.

If you haven't read a Kate Morton book I highly recommend that you do.

This is definitely a DEAR book. (For those of you without kids in the public school system that means Drop Everything And Read).

Jody

2 comments:

  1. Hi Jody, I followed you over here from book blogs. This is a great review! (as are other other two you wrote). This definitely has made me want to read this book. I hadn't heard a whole lot about this or her other book before.

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  2. Hi Jody, This sounds like a really nice book, I haven't read this author and I will have to check her out.

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