The Buzz...About Books

Kate
Morton’s The Forgotten Garden, is the perfect read for anyone who enjoys
family sagas. It uncovers ancient secrets as well as mysteries surrounding
character’s identities, with the magical feel of a fairy tale mixed in. This
book is told through different characters as it flashes back and forth between
the different generations, all intersecting to culminate in a surprising
reveal.

In
1913, a four-year-old girl is discovered alone on a dock in Brisbane, Australia.
Her only possession is a white suitcase containing a book of fairy tales. The
dockmaster and his wife take the girl in and raise her as their own. On her
twenty-first birthday, Nell is told the truth of how she was found. This
revelation shocks her and shatters her identity and her relationships with
those around her. Nell embarks on a lifelong journey to try and find her birth
paren'ts and her history. Unfortunately, life gets in the way and Nell is never
able to uncover the truth.

In
2005, on Nell’s deathbed, she passes the mystery on to her granddaughter
Cassandra. Cassandra’s investigation into her grandmother’s past leads her all
the way to Cornwall, England, to a gothic manor, a cliffside cottage and an
overgrown garden enclosed by brick walls. As Cassandra interviews locals and
reads through Nell’s notebook, she discovers that people in the village each
hold clues, which together reveal her grandmother’s past.