The Story of the Forest: 'Magnificent... I want to press a copy on everyone I know' Nigella Lawson

(Paperback)

Available Formats

---

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

From the award-winning Linda Grant, a vibrant imagining of the tumultuous world of early twentieth-century Europe through the eyes of Mina, a young girl whose adventures begin in a deep dark forest.

'Epic, magnificent, beautiful. A perfect work of art and craft and such a good story... I felt I was living it. I couldn't put it down' Philippa Perry

'Magnificent... flawless writing, wonderfully flawed characters, its epic sweep combined with a warm immediacy... I'm in awe, I'm charmed, and I want to press a copy on everyone I know' Nigella Lawson

'What an amazing novel... Vivid storytelling with complex and colourful characters... spectacular' David Morrissey

It's 1913 and a young, carefree and recklessly innocent girl, Mina, goes out into the forest on the edge of the Baltic sea and meets a gang of rowdy young men with revolution on their minds. It sounds like a fairy tale but it's life.

The adventure leads to flight, emigration and a new land, a new language and the pursuit of idealism or happiness - in Liverpool. But what of the stories from the old country; how do they shape and form the next generations who have heard the well-worn tales

From the flour mills of Latvia to Liverpool suburbia to post-war Soho, The Story of the Forest is about myths and memory and about how families adapt in order to survive. It is a story full of the humour and wisdom we have come to relish from this wonderful writer.

Reviews

What an amazing novel.....an epic, fascinating and moving story. The sections set in Liverpool really spoke to me having grown up there, but I loved the London chapters. Vivid storytelling with complex and colourful characters. I thought it was spectacular. * David Morrissey *
Epic, magnificent, beautiful. A perfect work of art and craft and such a good story... I felt I was living it. I couldn't put it down. * Philippa Perry *
I'm not sure it could ever be possible to do justice to this magnificent novel in a few words: the flawless writing, wonderfully flawed characters, its epic sweep combined with a warm immediacy, indeed every page of it just bowled me over completely. I'm in awe, I'm charmed, and I want to press a copy on everyone I know. * Nigella Lawson *
A major achievement... as fine as anything Linda Grant has written... maybe excelling them all * Joan Bakewell *
Such an intelligent family saga, ambitious and moving and funny too... I loved it * Tessa Hadley *

Author Bio

Linda Grant is author of four non-fiction books and eight novels. A Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, she won the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2000, the Lettre Ulysses Prize for Literary Reportage in 2006 and holds honorary doctorates from the University of York and Liverpool John Moores University. The Clothes on Their Backs was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize in 2008 and went on to win the South Bank Show Award; The Dark Circle was shortlisted for the 2017 Women's Prize for Fiction; A Stranger City won the 2000 Wingate Literary Prize. Linda Grant lives in London.