Julie 's Reviews > Winter Garden

Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah is a 2020 St. Martin’s Press publication.

After the death of their father, his daughters, Meredith and Nina, two women who are polar opposites, must cope with their cold mother, Anya, who is exhibiting signs of dementia. Nina is determined to grant her father's dying wish, which is to get Anya to tell his daughters the entire Russian fairytale she had started and stopped so many times when the girls were younger.

Meredith, on the other hand, couldn’t care less about fairytale stories. Meredith promised to take care of her mother- which may mean moving her to a care facility for her own safety. As she goes about packing up her mother’s things, Nina coaxes Anya to tell her story, a story, which despite her resentments, Meredith eavesdrops on, suddenly finding herself enthralled by it...

This novel begins like a highly emotional contemporary/women’s fiction novel as a death exposes the monumental dysfunction within a family. A marriage is in trouble, the sisters bicker, and their mother seems unmoved by the drama, refusing to budge from her cold shell to comfort them or bring about peace. But, as the story develops, the saga takes on an entirely different tone with Anya taking control of the main narrative.

Once Anya begins her narration, I found myself riveted by her story. Naturally, her story can put one’s own struggles into perspective and is a horrible reminder of the sacrifices, and sufferings of a complicated war. The story ends with a bittersweet tone- at once sad and triumphant.

Kristin Hannah is a powerful storyteller. For some reason I have only read a few of her books, though I have several of them on my Kindle- if they are all as good as this one- I’ll be reading a lot more of Kristin Hannah- especially since older books are working out much better for me than the new releases- by far!

Were there some weaknesses? Yes, but I’m so grateful for the quality of this novel, I’m willing to overlook them. By and far, this book blows anything and everything I’ve read this year, so far, completely out of the water.

If I had read this book a few years ago, I might have given it a four-star rating, but because I feel like a person dying of thirst in the middle of the desert who was just been given a long, refreshing drink of cool water- this book gets the full five stars!