Winter Garden By Kristin Hannah Summary

The book, "Winter Garden," by Kristin Hannah, a novel that focuses on the relationship between a mother and her two daughters. Meredith, the oldest daughter, who has always tried to please her mother by obeying her rightfully, but does not get the compassion she wishes to receive from her. Nina, the youngest daughter, who follows her dream of traveling the world instead of continuing to waster her time waiting to receive her mother's compassion. Then, there is Anya, Meredith's and Nina's mother. She hardly communicates or plays with her daughters that it seems as if she does not love them. The story takes place back in 1972, Meredith and Nina performed the fairy tale that their mother would tell them at night, but instead of grabbing
her attention, it just worsen things that no one knows exactly why or for what reason. The date then transitions to the year 2000 when Meredith and Nina have already grown up, but still see the presence of their mother now and then. Meredith and Nina move on with their life and no matter how hard their father tries to bring the three of them together to create a bond, he cannot seem to make it happen. However, when a tragic moment comes knocking at their door, Anya is told to reveal to her daughters something she has not been able to accomplish in her life and would possibly be the reason for why she has been so distant and unloving towards her daughters. The girls do not know what to make of this new information, but it makes them question who they are and take a journey to only come across a shocking discovery. At first, I thought I was not going to be interested in this book due to the fact that it dates back to a really long time ago. However, the author was really able to grab my attention and surprised me by how well she used her transitions between the years from then to now. I had no expectations for this book, I thought it would be nice to read it for fun, but in the end it won me over by reading the different scenes that the characters traveled to. I do wish that the author would have done a small summary of Anya somewhere in the first few chapters to get a little knowledge behind her background life and understand her personality more. In conclusion, I would definitely recommend this book to others because it will take you by surprise. This book makes you want to know more about each character and how the relationship between Anya and her daughters will be resolved. Not only their relationship, but how the lives of the girls will continue after the shocking discovery. It really brings a lot of emotion and you can really feel the pain and rejection Meredith and Nina get from Anya. This book is ideal for readers who enjoy reading family struggles, love, and untold secrets that either tear the family apart even more or bring them together ever closer. This book was a real eye-opener for me because I did not think there would be anything special to be read about this book, but I was completely wrong. After reading this book, I am open to reading books that not only contain my preference of teenage love, but books that contain settings that date way back because they, too, have a purpose for being written.