The Forgotten Garden
A Novel
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4.4 • 1.1K Ratings
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Homecoming comes a novel that takes readers on an unforgettable journey through generations and across continents as two women try to uncover their family’s secret past.
A tiny girl is abandoned on a ship headed for Australia in 1913. She arrives completely alone with nothing but a small suitcase containing a few clothes and a single book—a beautiful volume of fairy tales. She is taken in by the dockmaster and his wife and raised as their own. On her twenty-fi rst birthday, they tell her the truth, and with her sense of self shattered and very little to go on, "Nell" sets out to trace her real identity. Her quest leads her to Blackhurst Manor on the Cornish coast and the secrets of the doomed Mountrachet family. But it is not until her granddaughter, Cassandra, takes up the search after Nell’s death that all the pieces of the puzzle are assembled. A spellbinding tale of mystery and self-discovery, The Forgotten Garden will take hold of your imagination and never let go.
Customer Reviews
Wonderful saga
I love a family saga that spans generations and decades. The characters were intriguing and alive. I rated this a 4 star as I would have liked to read the stories of their lives as they were lived, a continuum, rather than the hopscotching between generations. Still a very worthy read.
Enchanting, breathtaking and heartbreaking
This is the first book I read from this author and I was very impressed—the continuity, flow and connectivity are seamless. The forgotten Garden is the tragic story of Eliza and her pure heart, her legacy—of the people she loved, and lost, and the evil people who changed her destiny. The author is able to weave in fairy tales that are allegories and in themselves prophesies of what is to come in such a way that you cannot put the book down looking for more clues across the time periods that tie in with each other in a way that you cannot get lost. You cry and laugh with her characters, and even after you’re done with the book you keep thinking of them. Like how sad it was that Rose turned out to be just like her mother.
The only part of the book I was disappointed in was the end. It felt rushed. I was hoping for some more resolution: that Cassandra found the connection Nathaniel had..that somehow in the boxes Clara possessed there was a journal with Eliza’s musings of the year she was away (we really don’t find out what was there). The importance of the sketch of Eliza Nell found in the cabin and then hid in the book. That the portrait of Rose would be further inspected and they’d be able to see that right next to her Eliza had also been painted over. Mary’s aunt Eleanor’s connection to Nell.
Loved these quotes:
“It was as if, with the birth of the baby, the anchor Eliza had been seeking all her life had lodged into the earth of Blackhurst.”
“Finally, Eliza was home”
“The person she had spent a lifetime seeking, her other half. She was whole at last, heading toward home”
Loved it!!
Great story telling.