The Forgetting Tree

Name: The Forgetting Tree
Brand: Tantor Audio
Availability: InStock
Author: Tatjana Soli
ISBN: 9781452679099

Author: Tatjana Soli

Narrator: Joyce Bean

Unabridged: 12 hr 37 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Tantor Media

Published: 09/04/2012

Categories: Fiction, Literary Fiction

Synopsis

When Claire Nagy marries Forster Baumsarg, the only son of prominent California citrus ranchers, she knows she's consenting to a life of hard work, long days, and worry-fraught nights. But her love for Forster is so strong, she turns away from her literary education and embraces the life of the ranch, succumbing to its intoxicating rhythms and bounty until her love of the land becomes a part of her. Not even the tragic, senseless death of her son Joshua at kidnappers' hands, her alienation from her two daughters, or the dissolution of her once-devoted marriage can pull her from the ranch she's devoted her life to preserving.

But despite having survived the most terrible of tragedies, Claire is about to face her greatest struggle: an illness that threatens not only to rip her from her land but take her very life. And she's chosen a caregiver, the inscrutable, Caribbean-born Minna, who may just be the darkest force of all.

Haunting, tough, triumphant, and profound, The Forgetting Tree explores the intimate ties we have to one another, the deepest fears we keep to ourselves, and the calling of the land that ties every one of us together.

About Tatjana Soli

New York Times bestselling author Tatjana Soli's debut novel, The Lotus Eaters, was a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, a New York Times Notable Book, and winner of the 2011 James Tait Black Prize. She lives with her husband in Southern California.

Reviews

Goodreads review by switterbug (Betsey) on July 20, 2012

This complex, mystifying, and terrifying novel begins very simply, with spare prose and a story of tragedy that strikes the family members of a 580-acre citrus ranch--the violent loss of a beloved son and brother. Claire is a literary intellect from a scholarly family, the daughter of Hungarian immig......more

Goodreads review by Kate on October 08, 2012

I wanted to love The Forgetting Tree, set in California on a ranch, a connection to the environment, home to me. It is beautifully written. But, the character development and plot don’t hold up, there’s a reaching for a philosophical conclusion that just isn’t there. The story shifts about halfway t......more

Goodreads review by Rachel on September 25, 2012

I have mixed feelings about The Forgetting Tree. On the one hand, the prose was lush and poetic. I felt like I was in a melancholy fog right along with Claire as I was reading it. On the other hand, I could not relate to Claire or Minna at all. I think they both were mentally-ill in some way. I neve......more

Goodreads review by Patty on September 06, 2012

This is a novel of love for the land and loss of a child. I found the parts about citrus farming to be fascinating. The parts of the story at the beginning when it involved Claire and her marriage to Forster and their life as Claire adjusted to being a farmer's wife and then her falling in love with......more

Goodreads review by Elizabeth La Lettrice on March 05, 2012

Since it appears that I am the first to review this book, I feel a heavy burden on my shoulders! It’s a good thing I have nothing but positive to say!:) First, I’d like to describe the book for you in Tatjana Soli’s words (based off of a Q&A in a GR’s forum) since there is no blurb on the GR book pag......more