The Forgotten Garden

I’ve had just about the worst time finding a good book to read. I’ve searched high and low on Barnes & Nobles’ website (I even added it as an app on my iPhone to peruse while bored somewhere) and wandered the fiction and nonfiction shelves of my library. By doing so I have noticed two things: 1) I have really read a lot of books that are already out there and 2) nothing is really catching my eye.

Sure, I suppose I could think that I could sit down and write a book that I would want to read, but that topic’s been covered and believe me, I have no interest, aside from the interest in royalties that my (clearly) bestseller would bring in.

However, I am currently reading a book that both intrigues me enough not to want to read the end first to see if it’s worthy of actually working through the entire thing and one that I simply cannot put down. The Forgotten Garden, by Kate Morton, tells the story of a woman’s quest to find out who she is since being abandoned at the tender age of 3 where she is found on the docks in Australia, having arrived fresh off a ship from England. The story of what happened is told through several characters, moving from various time periods. Morton brings the reader back and forth between present day (2005), the 1970s, the 1930s, and the early 20th-century. Images of poor England, terrorized by Jack the Ripper and young children being forced into the workhouse dominate the story, as well as a mystery of long-lost family members and family betrayals among an aristocratic family. It is even difficult to name a main character, as there are a few who specifically stick out.

Morton clearly did her research writing this book, much like her first novel, which I also swallowed whole. The Forgotten Garden just published, so I shall eagerly await her next novel. It’s quite obvious that Morton shares the same love that I do – ENGLAND!