Publication
St. Maritn's Press (2010) ; nDoubleday large print home edition
Collection
Call number
Large Print Fiction H
Physical description
696 p.; 8.2 inches
Status
Available
Call number
Description
The dying wish of a loving father ignites a family drama that brings two sisters and their acid-tongued, Russian-born mother together in a story that reaches back to WWII Leningrad.
Media reviews
Resisting the urge to skip ahead so I could find out what happens was a serious problem with this novel. Even though there are a number of stories told in this novel; Meredith's struggles with her marriage, Nina's struggles with love and family, Anya's struggles with her past, and Veronika's story
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in Russia, everything flows so smoothly.
What starts out as a story of three struggling women turns into a beautiful story... one that literally brough tears to my eyes. I found that this book allowed me to laugh, cry, yell and hurt and a book that does that is a very powerful book.
Overall, this book needs to be read... it deserves a place on anyone's bookshelf! Well done Kristin Hannah, I will be reading many more of your books in the future!
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For this reader, it doesn't work.
Booklist
The Whitson family is rocked by the sudden death of patriarch Evan, a warm, loving man who doted on his two adult daughters, Meredith and Nina, and his reserved Russian wife, Anya. Meredith, who runs the family business, and Nina, a photojournalist whose job takes her to war zones around the world,
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have never been able to connect with their cold, forbidding mother. When Anya begins to act strangely, Meredith thinks she belongs in a nursing home, but Nina decides to try to fulfill her father's dying wish and get her mother to tell her and Meredith the elaborate fairy tales she used to share with them. Anya is initially reluctant, but once she begins, Nina realizes these tales are actually the story of Anya's life in Stalinist Leningrad. Meredith and Nina decide to attempt to uncover the truth about their mother's tragic past in the hope of understanding her, and themselves. Show Less
User reviews
LibraryThing member Emma_Manolis
Ugly tears all around. I hate this book.
*Update* I needed some time to sort out my emotions. I'm feeling less like throwing the book out of the window, so maybe I'm ready.
I'm usually a fan of hopping back and forth through time, but this book was the exception for me. I think the issue is that I
My biggest issue with this book is the ending. It felt over-the-top tragic, just to be tragic. Then there is the epilogue. All I can say is, where is Evan? Did those 50 years just mean nothing? Really?!
Overall, this book has a ton of issues. After writing this review I feel annoyed again and may just chuck my copy out of a window.
*Update* I needed some time to sort out my emotions. I'm feeling less like throwing the book out of the window, so maybe I'm ready.
I'm usually a fan of hopping back and forth through time, but this book was the exception for me. I think the issue is that I
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was not invested in the modern-day characters. The sisters, Meredith and Nina seemed very two-dimensional and I couldn't stand either of them. Then we have the mother. I have so very many issues with this mother. I thought her story would shed some light on her behavior but it left me with more questions. I think the novel would have been stronger without the modern-day tale, focusing only on the mother's story. I wouldn't say I "enjoyed" her story, but it made me keep turning the pages and it resulted in so many ugly tears. I was invested in her at that point in her life, but that woman felt so different from the woman we saw in the present day. I wanted more explanation as to how she got from point A to point C. Also, I hadn't read a WWII book from that perspective, so it was enlightening. My biggest issue with this book is the ending. It felt over-the-top tragic, just to be tragic. Then there is the epilogue. All I can say is, where is Evan? Did those 50 years just mean nothing? Really?!
Overall, this book has a ton of issues. After writing this review I feel annoyed again and may just chuck my copy out of a window.
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LibraryThing member nyiper
It's not that the story wasn't good---I read The Nightingale before this---but somehow, the CD for this just seemed so incredibly LONG. If perhaps I could have speeded up the reading to make it half as long ?? but my CD system isn't set up for that so I felt as though I was just WAITING for things
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to move along to some sort of conclusion, which of course Hannah had waiting. I found all of the characters somewhat overly dramatically portrayed---lurching from one extreme to the next in their lives. That seems harsh but it was a little on the exhausting side to listen to. Show Less
LibraryThing member ldrumm16
This is the second book by Kristin Hannah that I have read and she is quickly becoming one of my favorite authors. I won a copy of Winter Garden in a Goodreads giveaway and had the opportunity to read it before it was released. This was easily one of the most painful stories I have ever read. The
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non-existant relationship between Anya Whitson and her daughters, Meredith and Nina, was difficult enough to read about, but the underlying reasons for that as they were revealed in the story of Anya's life in Russia during World War II were downright heartbreaking. Ms. Hannah managed to cover 60 years of back story without making it feel drawn out. The more that was revealed, the more I wanted to know. An absolutely amazing read. Show Less
LibraryThing member schoolnurse
This is the first Kristin Hannah book that I have read or listened to since I opted for the audiobook version of this book. It was fantastic! The audio production was wonderful and I enjoyed hearing Vera's character with a Russian accent.
A book club member picked this book for our group to read
I would highly recommend this book to others.
A book club member picked this book for our group to read
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after hearing from another book club that this was a great book. Everyone loved it and we had a lot of discussion at our last book club meeting. I can't wait to read or listen to more books by Kristin Hannah. I hope they are all as good as the one I just read. I would highly recommend this book to others.
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LibraryThing member whitreidtan
I have long been fascinated with Russia. I took two years of Russian in high school and took whatever Russian history classes I could find both in high school and college. I've read many of the major Russian writers for classes and as well as on my own. So while I wasn't thrilled when Kristin
Meredith is a tightly wound, rule following, control freak who works hard to be the mother her own mother never was but who rejects her husband's overtures time after time. Nina is an award winning war zone photographer who is known for keeping an emotional distance from her subjects, allowing her to capture the truth of their lives impartially, but her inability to open herself up is causing her problems with her sexy occasional boyfriend. Both Meredith and Nina learned their emotional frigidity at the knee of their mother, a Russian woman who never mothered them, showing them only disapproval and detachment. Luckily they had a loving and giving father who held the family together, even as he enabled their mother's emotional distance. When he suffers a massive heart attack and then slowly fades away, he makes the girls promise that they will stand by their mother and listen as she tells them the end to the incomplete fairy tale she used to tell them in childhood, the one that will explain so much they've never understood, that will explain the trauma that shaped all of their lives and especially their mother's. As Anya tells the tale, it slowly becomes clear to the girls that she is telling them the story of her own life before them, a story devastated by the Siege of Leningrad.
The narrative can be split pretty cleanly into two halves here: before the telling of the tale and during/after. The latter is certainly more interesting in terms of plot since Meredith and Nina are not characters with whom the reader will find it easy to empathize. They have clearly been badly damaged by their mother's remoteness but they seem, in many ways in their own lives, to be emulating her rather than the father they both claim to have adored. They come across as incredibly selfish. The second part does pick up although the conceit of the fairy tale isn't altogether successful as it ceases to be a fairy tale quite soon into the telling, in addition to the fact that it doesn't actually have all of the elements of traditional fairy tales. There's no magic, no triumph of good over evil, and no moral message or universal truth to it although it does, eventually have a happy ending. Anya, Meredith and Nina's mother, is a character who is hard to know, even as she tells the girls about her life in the Soviet Union. These daughters are ridiculously slow at figuring out the fairy tale is Anya's true life and it begs the question why they were never interested in their mother's origins. That Anya only sees things in black and white and cannot see color, even though there's no physical reason to explain that, is meant to show that the color leached out of her world long before Meredith and Nina were born and to give her a pass on her treatment of her daughters. She shut down emotionally to survive the terrible things that she endured but she never did choose to truly live again, to the detriment of her family. The ending to the story was too coincidental, completely unbelievable and far too easy given the decades of hurt that preceded it.
The writing here was repetitive and pedestrian and the internal musings of the characters were overly long and uninteresting in their repetition. Each time a character comes back onto the page, they are described physically, as if the reader isn't able to keep the (frankly unnecessary) picture of that particular character in mind without help. I am very definitely in the minority in my opinion of this one (in fact, many people adore it) so if you like dysfunctional family stories where secrets eventually come out after a long and drawn out lead up, where a terrible historical event that isn't apparently taught in schools (except mine) is a major plot point, where a lack of family connection is suddenly resolved, and there is boundless hope that it's never to late to forgive and to heal, you might like this one a whole lot more than I did.
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Hannah's Winter Garden was chosen for book club, I at least figured that the subject matter would interest me, even if the writing didn't engage me. Unfortunately, I was wrong. Since I already knew of the horrors of the Siege of Leningrad, there was nothing new to keep me from focusing on the rest and it turns out that wasn't a good thing. Meredith is a tightly wound, rule following, control freak who works hard to be the mother her own mother never was but who rejects her husband's overtures time after time. Nina is an award winning war zone photographer who is known for keeping an emotional distance from her subjects, allowing her to capture the truth of their lives impartially, but her inability to open herself up is causing her problems with her sexy occasional boyfriend. Both Meredith and Nina learned their emotional frigidity at the knee of their mother, a Russian woman who never mothered them, showing them only disapproval and detachment. Luckily they had a loving and giving father who held the family together, even as he enabled their mother's emotional distance. When he suffers a massive heart attack and then slowly fades away, he makes the girls promise that they will stand by their mother and listen as she tells them the end to the incomplete fairy tale she used to tell them in childhood, the one that will explain so much they've never understood, that will explain the trauma that shaped all of their lives and especially their mother's. As Anya tells the tale, it slowly becomes clear to the girls that she is telling them the story of her own life before them, a story devastated by the Siege of Leningrad.
The narrative can be split pretty cleanly into two halves here: before the telling of the tale and during/after. The latter is certainly more interesting in terms of plot since Meredith and Nina are not characters with whom the reader will find it easy to empathize. They have clearly been badly damaged by their mother's remoteness but they seem, in many ways in their own lives, to be emulating her rather than the father they both claim to have adored. They come across as incredibly selfish. The second part does pick up although the conceit of the fairy tale isn't altogether successful as it ceases to be a fairy tale quite soon into the telling, in addition to the fact that it doesn't actually have all of the elements of traditional fairy tales. There's no magic, no triumph of good over evil, and no moral message or universal truth to it although it does, eventually have a happy ending. Anya, Meredith and Nina's mother, is a character who is hard to know, even as she tells the girls about her life in the Soviet Union. These daughters are ridiculously slow at figuring out the fairy tale is Anya's true life and it begs the question why they were never interested in their mother's origins. That Anya only sees things in black and white and cannot see color, even though there's no physical reason to explain that, is meant to show that the color leached out of her world long before Meredith and Nina were born and to give her a pass on her treatment of her daughters. She shut down emotionally to survive the terrible things that she endured but she never did choose to truly live again, to the detriment of her family. The ending to the story was too coincidental, completely unbelievable and far too easy given the decades of hurt that preceded it.
The writing here was repetitive and pedestrian and the internal musings of the characters were overly long and uninteresting in their repetition. Each time a character comes back onto the page, they are described physically, as if the reader isn't able to keep the (frankly unnecessary) picture of that particular character in mind without help. I am very definitely in the minority in my opinion of this one (in fact, many people adore it) so if you like dysfunctional family stories where secrets eventually come out after a long and drawn out lead up, where a terrible historical event that isn't apparently taught in schools (except mine) is a major plot point, where a lack of family connection is suddenly resolved, and there is boundless hope that it's never to late to forgive and to heal, you might like this one a whole lot more than I did.
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LibraryThing member Clara53
The IDEA for the plot, based on historical facts, is truly worthy. I wish I could say the same about the plot itself, about subplots and the writing. But I cannot.
LibraryThing member bookalover89
A great book can make a person forget the world around them, sweep them off their feet and the unforgettable beauty of the story itself. Winter Garden does all of the above. Such tender, tragic, and timeless storytelling from Kristin Hannah!
LibraryThing member AmeKole
I love this book and found the ending so moving that I actually read it twice. I would highly recommend this book, especially to anyone who enjoys historical fiction and the experience of civilians living through a war zone.
LibraryThing member evansdiana
Amzing story of an unusual relationship between a Russian-born mother and her two daughters. Reasons behind the telling of fairytales to daughters at a young age aren't evident until after the death of the beloved husband and father. As the fairytale progresses so does the untold story of their
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mother's trials during the 900 day Seige of Leningrad from 1941 to 1944. The story is told in such a way that the daughters (and readers) get a glimpse of the terrible atrocities that took place during that time at the hands of the cruel German war machine that ravaged Leningrad. Show Less
LibraryThing member DubaiReader
Siege of Leningrad.
I have just finished this book with the tears pouring down my face. It is expertly written and the 448 pages just shot by. In fact I can't think of any criticism for this book at all, definitely worth more than 5 stars.
The author is known for her sensitive coverage of women's
The novel introduces the siege of Leningrad gradually; initially we meet two sisters, Meredith and Nina, their fun loving and exuberant father and their quiet, reclusive mother, Anya. The only time Anya opens up is when she recounts a fairy story of a young peasant girl, a handsome prince, with whom she falle in love, and the black carriage drawn by dragons and manned by the Black Knight and his goblins and trolls. She spends a lot of time just sitting in her freezing winter garden and seems always to be pushing her daughters away from herself. While their father tries to compensate, the girls still mourn their mother's love.
As the fairy story starts to take on a life of its own, it becomes less and less fiction, and more a tale of terror and opression.
I will say no more - you really HAVE to read this book. Part relationships, part historical fiction, it had me gripped from the first page. Don't let this one pass you by!
I have just finished this book with the tears pouring down my face. It is expertly written and the 448 pages just shot by. In fact I can't think of any criticism for this book at all, definitely worth more than 5 stars.
The author is known for her sensitive coverage of women's
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issues, but when combined with the struggle and deprivations of war torn Leningrad, she has really excelled herself. This has to be my best read so far this year.The novel introduces the siege of Leningrad gradually; initially we meet two sisters, Meredith and Nina, their fun loving and exuberant father and their quiet, reclusive mother, Anya. The only time Anya opens up is when she recounts a fairy story of a young peasant girl, a handsome prince, with whom she falle in love, and the black carriage drawn by dragons and manned by the Black Knight and his goblins and trolls. She spends a lot of time just sitting in her freezing winter garden and seems always to be pushing her daughters away from herself. While their father tries to compensate, the girls still mourn their mother's love.
As the fairy story starts to take on a life of its own, it becomes less and less fiction, and more a tale of terror and opression.
I will say no more - you really HAVE to read this book. Part relationships, part historical fiction, it had me gripped from the first page. Don't let this one pass you by!
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LibraryThing member avernon1
I am at the auto body shop and I have to stop to contain myself. I wipe the beginnings of tears from the corners of my eyes and take a deep breath. I am on page 326 and I'm about to cry amidst the smells of gasoline and oil. "Control yourself", I think. Yet...I continue on... I can't stop reading.
Meredith and Nina are sisters, yet not very close ones any more. They lead very different lives, yet they share one thing...a need, a need to be comforted and loved by their seemingly cold-hearted mother. These sisters tried not to care that their own mother never looked at them and barely spoke to them. Nina makes a promise to her dying father to listen to her mother's "fairy tale" one last time, yet this time, she must hear it to the end. Little do these three women know that the telling of this tale will force them to reexamine their lives and thus change them forever.
This is one of those books that will stay with me long after I have turned the last page and cried my last tear. The author, Kristin Hannah, has done a marvelous job of moving between the past and present, from an apple orchard in Washington State to war torn Russia and finally to modern day Alaska. The way she interweaves the daughters' personal struggles with the mother's telling of her past in Leningrad is well done. She tackles many themes in this wonderfully written book....the ravages of war, the strength of women, the pain endured by mothers, forgiveness and healing. After reading this book, the reader learns how one's past affects one's future. As Kristen Hannah says, it all began with a sentence: "Sometimes, when you open the door to your mother's past, you find your own future." I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy books that are "part epic love story, part family drama, part historical novel". However, be warned...have a box of Kleenex nearby!
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The universal theme of loss of loved ones hits me like a ton of bricks. I cannot help but be affected by this story, one of motherhood, loss, guilt and grief. I am getting closer to the end of the "fairy tale" within the tale, and I find myself at odds....I want to know the ending, but I dread the knowledge of a terrible event that must be revealed.Meredith and Nina are sisters, yet not very close ones any more. They lead very different lives, yet they share one thing...a need, a need to be comforted and loved by their seemingly cold-hearted mother. These sisters tried not to care that their own mother never looked at them and barely spoke to them. Nina makes a promise to her dying father to listen to her mother's "fairy tale" one last time, yet this time, she must hear it to the end. Little do these three women know that the telling of this tale will force them to reexamine their lives and thus change them forever.
This is one of those books that will stay with me long after I have turned the last page and cried my last tear. The author, Kristin Hannah, has done a marvelous job of moving between the past and present, from an apple orchard in Washington State to war torn Russia and finally to modern day Alaska. The way she interweaves the daughters' personal struggles with the mother's telling of her past in Leningrad is well done. She tackles many themes in this wonderfully written book....the ravages of war, the strength of women, the pain endured by mothers, forgiveness and healing. After reading this book, the reader learns how one's past affects one's future. As Kristen Hannah says, it all began with a sentence: "Sometimes, when you open the door to your mother's past, you find your own future." I highly recommend this book to those who enjoy books that are "part epic love story, part family drama, part historical novel". However, be warned...have a box of Kleenex nearby!
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LibraryThing member cyncie
What a moving, compelling story! Prepare for some tears for sure, but such a sweet ending.
LibraryThing member MsGemini
Winter Garden is a story about 3 women trying to find their place in the world. Meredith and Nina are sisters and have an almost nonexistant relationship with their Mother. At the start of the story, they experience a life changing event. Each sister must learn how to deal with the changes in their
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lives. Part of this story is told as a fairy tale. When I first started reading the 'fairy tale" I wasn't sure this book was for me. Then as the story continued and I learned more about the reason for the 'fairy tale' I aprreciated it and looked forward to 'hearing' more of this tale. I was happy I stuck with it and read this book all the way through as my favorite part of the book was the last 1/3. Show Less
LibraryThing member Spibrarian
I could not put this book down. Fortunately it was snowing to beat the band outside and I devoted the day and afternoon to reading it. Days later, this novel still haunts me - two sisters who find out an heartbreaking secret about their mom after their father's death. Please read this one!
LibraryThing member quadmama
This was a wonderful, engaging story about a two grown sisters and keeping their promises to their father on his death bed. The author told this story in such a beautiful way. I was intrigued by many of her writing tricks in this story. She started the story with a lot of detail, that was not
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boring which can be a fine line in story-telling. Her detail allowed me to feel as though I was traveling through this story in real time. I felt connected to the characters and really felt like I could feel their emotions. She also had a beautiful flow over who the voice telling the story was. Most books are written in either one person telling the story from their point of view or the story is told with alternating voice between chapters. Kristin Hannah told this story in such a flowing way that one characters voice suddenly took over another characters voice mid-thought. It was very intriguing. I won't give away any of the details of the story line however I will say that I was sobbing at the end. Show Less
LibraryThing member delphimo
This story centers on the family, a loving father and a cold mother. But all changes when the father dies, and requests that his two daughters care for their mother. The story of Anya's life in Russia in the 1940's unfolds. Each of the daughters, Nina and Meredith, are coping with their own
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problems. The novel details the horrors of Russia during this time, with hunger, sickness, and hopelessness. I cannot imagine boiling leather to make a soup. The story ends on a happy note, but the pain throughout is very vivid. Maybe, the story helps individuals to understand a mother's love. Show Less
LibraryThing member mpmills
This is only the second book I have read by Kristin Hannah, and I was very surprised at how much I loved this novel. Sisters, Meredith and Nina, were raised by Anya, a cold and distant mother. Their father's dying wish was for them to take care of their mother and to make her tell them what
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happened to her in her past. The only way Anya could bear to tell the story was through a Russian fairy tale. The story of what happened to Anya during the siege of Leningrad was heartbreaking. The novel was hard to put down, especially while reading the last half where Anya was telling her story. Wonderful book. Show Less
LibraryThing member julyso
Winter Garden is a story about mothers and daughters. Anya is cold and unloving towards both of her daughters, Meredith and Nina. Their father dies, but before he does, he makes them promise to get to know their mother, to make her tell them her story. The three of them go on a cruise to Alaska and
Winter Garden was one of the best books I have read in a while. I loved the story, I loved the characters, and I loved how it all turned it. Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors and this one is one of my favorites of her books.
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Anya tells her story, all of her story. It is very sad, very dark, and easy to understand why she has such a hard time loving her girls. Winter Garden was one of the best books I have read in a while. I loved the story, I loved the characters, and I loved how it all turned it. Kristin Hannah is one of my favorite authors and this one is one of my favorites of her books.
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LibraryThing member bookaholicmom
Great book about two sisters who grow up thinking their mother hates them. When their father passes they promise him that they will take care of their mother and make her tell them a childhood fairy tale that she has kept to herself for many years. In doing so they learn who their mother is and
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much about the women they have become. A very heartwarming read. Kleenex necessary! Show Less
LibraryThing member tanya2009
This book is wonderful. Two sisters who have never felt loved by their mother finally learn what happened in their mother's past to have made her so distant after their father dies. The characters are wonderful and the mother's story will touch your heart. I highly recommend this book.
LibraryThing member likesbooksrs
The orchard, Belye Nochi, in the Pacific Northwest, is the home of Anya. Meredith, her daughter, has taken over running the orchard after her father's death. Dutiful but unhappy and troubled, Meredith struggles with her relationship with her mother, an unemotional woman, and her husband who she
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feels distanced from. Her sister, Nina, is a successful photojournalist who also has a difficult relationship with her mother which seems to affect her inability to commit to a relationship with the man she loves. When Meredith and Nina travel to Alaska with Anya, the story of their mother's lifetime of pain and anguish is revealed. Woven through the novel is a fairy tale story told by Anya that is actually the story of her survival in Leningrad nearly fifty years ago during World War II. This is an intimate and beautifully crafted story of unbearable pain, strength, courage and love. Highly recommended. Show Less
LibraryThing member dhaupt
Winter Garden is the first must read of 2010.
Meredith and Nina Whitson have grown up glowing in the love of their father Evan and always fearing the contempt at worst or neglect at best from their aloof mother Anya. When Evan has a heart attack and is near death he makes the women he loves make a
Kristin Hannah gives us an exceptional work of fiction in her newest heart-wrencher, Winter Garden. With her amazing storytelling abilities she will show us love in all of the different varieties, love of parent, of sibling and romantic love. She will tell us of loss, loss that is so unbearable that no-one speaks of it of loss that is debilitating to the point of madness. She gives us multi-dimensional characters, people you want to know, people you want to learn about and people you want to forget. Her dialogue is full of flowing prose that paints her scenes in our minds with large brushstrokes. And her love stories are truly amazing, she makes us thankful of what we have and makes it so we never forget what some have given up or lost or had taken away from them.
This may not be the first book you read this year, but it will be the best. Be prepared to use the tissue box, but don’t be embarrassed because even the most macho of men would find it hard not to shed a tear over this incredible novel. But it’s not all about crying, it’s about love, it’s about life and Kristin Hannah tells it the only way she knows how, with a lot of heart.
Meredith and Nina Whitson have grown up glowing in the love of their father Evan and always fearing the contempt at worst or neglect at best from their aloof mother Anya. When Evan has a heart attack and is near death he makes the women he loves make a
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promise, a promise to hear Anya’s famous Russian Fairy Tale to the end. The Fairy Tale is a double edged sword for the sisters, but they honor a father they love above all else his dying wish. And as their mother tells her fairy tale, will the daughters finally get a glimpse of the mother they have always longed to know or will they be disappointed and a disappointment once again.Kristin Hannah gives us an exceptional work of fiction in her newest heart-wrencher, Winter Garden. With her amazing storytelling abilities she will show us love in all of the different varieties, love of parent, of sibling and romantic love. She will tell us of loss, loss that is so unbearable that no-one speaks of it of loss that is debilitating to the point of madness. She gives us multi-dimensional characters, people you want to know, people you want to learn about and people you want to forget. Her dialogue is full of flowing prose that paints her scenes in our minds with large brushstrokes. And her love stories are truly amazing, she makes us thankful of what we have and makes it so we never forget what some have given up or lost or had taken away from them.
This may not be the first book you read this year, but it will be the best. Be prepared to use the tissue box, but don’t be embarrassed because even the most macho of men would find it hard not to shed a tear over this incredible novel. But it’s not all about crying, it’s about love, it’s about life and Kristin Hannah tells it the only way she knows how, with a lot of heart.
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LibraryThing member abitbookish
Anytime I see a new Kristin Hannah book I can't help it, I get excited. This one does not dissapoint in fact I believe it is easily her best book yet. It was a tad bit slow in the beginning and I considered putting it down, I am so glad I refrained and kept on. I guess a good story just needs time
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to develop, whatever the case may be I really liked this one. It's a bit of a departure from Hannah's usual books, the story is richer and less on the daily relational drama that her books are hallmarked with, but this is a good thing. It's just a really good story, I loved it. Show Less
LibraryThing member libraryladebp
excellent. learned more about the history of Stalin, and those in Russia
LibraryThing member BONS
"And maybe that was how is was supposed to be, how life unfolded when you lived it long enough. Joy and sadness were part of the package; the trick, perhaps, was to let yourself feel all of it, but to hold on to the joy just a little more tightly because you never knew when a strong heart could
I had quickly read an overview on "Winter Garden" before and it sounded a bit fluffy for me. Maybe it was the part about the sister's relationships that somehow threw me off. Oh dear, what a mistake for me. Kristin Hannah's writing is beautiful and touching and just real.
I loved the two sister's Meredith and Nina who are completely different from one another in all the best ways. The story veering to Leningrad gave Winter Garden astonishing depth. The author's ability to smoothly transition through many decades was just true art.
My first Kristin Hannah novel. It was pretty much a one day read as I could not put it aside. I loved this book! I will recommend it to many.
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just give out."I had quickly read an overview on "Winter Garden" before and it sounded a bit fluffy for me. Maybe it was the part about the sister's relationships that somehow threw me off. Oh dear, what a mistake for me. Kristin Hannah's writing is beautiful and touching and just real.
I loved the two sister's Meredith and Nina who are completely different from one another in all the best ways. The story veering to Leningrad gave Winter Garden astonishing depth. The author's ability to smoothly transition through many decades was just true art.
My first Kristin Hannah novel. It was pretty much a one day read as I could not put it aside. I loved this book! I will recommend it to many.
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Awards
Romantic Times Reviewers' Choice Award (Winner — 2010)
Language
Original publication date
2010
ISBN
9781615239498
Other editions
Winter garden by Kristin Hannah (Paper Book)