The Winter Garden

Having followed this book’s sale on B&N for awhile, I was delighted to find it for a friend in a used books store in NYC. This time it wasn’t just the cover page, but the blurb as well with its hauntingly beautiful and ethereal note depicting coldness, sadness and something more.

Meredith and Nina Whitson are sisters by blood but strangers in real life. One chooses family life over her dreams while the other is just the opposite, but they share a common trait – inability to rely on their families/partners in the hour of need. This trait is deeply rooted in their relation with their mother Anya, a woman they’ve known only to be cold and distant. The only semblance of any communication or connection the 3 ladies share is a fairytale, of a Russian Pheasant girl Vera and her Prince Sasha…a tale magical yet dark and dreadful. Meredith, Nina are forced to reunite with Anya on the death of their father Evan, who insists that Anya complete the fairytale once and for all. The reunion doesn’t come easily either..for when Anya retells the fairytale, the sisters begin to make the connection with their mother’s past.

Anya’s fairytale is set during the Siege of Leningrad (Russia) in WW II, when Russian women were witnesses to a number of inconceivable atrocities committed by Stalin’s government. These come to light through the Vera’s thoughts, her tribulations in her role as a young daughter and mother and her struggle to survive with meagre hopes and abundant grief that constantly shadows her. It is described at the beginning that Anya is color blind through reference to the decor of her home, Belya Nochi but as the tale progresses, you get that strong feeling that it is a metaphorical description of Anya’s mental state, a residue of her past. Evan brings her a new life and with it the hopes of recreating everything she lost, and here the author leaves it to the readers’ imagination to conclude whether Anya ever accepted her life in America.

The other symbolic reference to Anya’s past is the book title, The Winter Garden, which originates from Anya’s own garden at Belya Nochi that characterizes Anya’s past…her country, her family and the people she lost, and is the source of Anya’s comfort and connection to reality. As with other books by Kristin Hannah, the subject of this tale is mother – daughter relationship and the imprints that parents leave on their children. Although parents may brush off their children’s attributes as not being related to them, they will find on introspection that it is quite the opposite…for a child can learn only from its parents. That is what happens to Meredith and Nina as they subconsciously pick on Anya’s cold and aloof nature and project it on each other and their confused partners. Gradually as Anya opens up to her children, the sisters’ find new beginnings. For all the above reasons, I’m still pondering whether a physical copy or an ebook would make sense for my personal library.