The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli

The Forgetting Tree by Tatjana Soli- 404 pages

Book Blurb:

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 enigmatic Caribbean-born Minna, who may just be the darkest force of all.

My Review: 2.5 stars

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The Forgetting Tree is dark story of land and magic. It is a difficult one for me to review. At times I felt it dragged along (blah, blah, blah about the land) and at times I couldn’t stop reading. I was compelled to find out what the protagonist would do next as I wanted to bitch slap her into place. This book offered wonderful writing, mystery, magic and two deeply flawed characters, but at the same time it was dark, had disjointed minor characters and left me feeling empty at times. The majority of reviews for this book have been really excellent, but it’s not a book I would recommend to many people.

Quotes I liked:

Forster teased that she would try to read a novel during childbirth if she could. He was right because it was her only free time.”

– “Instead of the farm, Claire plunged into the most private of worlds, the pages of a novel, for comfort. That old luxuriousness like a warm bath that she had not realized how much she missed.”