BOOK REVIEW: The Forgotten Garden

(note from Wendy:  Usually, book reviews are posted on Wednesdays, but because of the frequency of theater reviews, this one is a bit off schedule.  Enjoy!)

The plot to Kate Morton’s  THE FORGOTTEN GARDEN is as complicated as the maze in the center of the garden itself. Following the lives of three generations in order to solve the mystery of one little girl, takes talent on the part of the author and concentration on the part of the reader.

The year is 1913 in Australia, the dockmaster has found an abandoned child hiding among the boxes and barrels piled on the dock. She will not or can not tell him her name. Her small suitcase has a few pieces of clothing and the most beautifully illustrated book of delightful fairy tales.

The dockmaster and his wife name the tiny girl Nell and raise her along with their other daughters. On her twenty-first birthday, Nell learns the unique story of her life and starts a journey to discover who she is and to help her to understand some of the faint memories that are always with her.

Thus starts the stories of three generations of women: Eliza and her young brother who live in the worst conditions possible in London in the year 1900, Nell, who in the year 1975, goes from Brisbane Australia to London to find her early life, and Nell’s granddaughter Cassandra who will finally bring the journey to an end.

It is not as difficult for the reader to jump from generation to generation thanks to the author’s skill. Time clues are given either through identification at the beginning of each chapter or with subtle mentions of details of clothing, transportation, etc.

With each generation’s story, we travel a little farther through this maze of who Nell is and how she appeared alone on a dock in Australia. Along the way we meet a complicated family with exceptionally strong women.

This is a beautiful book, full of complex characters, both men and women. Interwoven between chapters are original fairy tales from the book that Nell had in her suitcase. These tales may be hints to what happened all those years ago.

Sometime it worthwhile to lose yourself in a garden’s maze.