Many thanks to NetGalley, St Martin's Press, and Macmillan Audio for gifting me both a digital and audio ARC of this wonderful novel by Julie Carrick Dalton. All opinions expressed in this review are my own - 4.5 stars!
In Concord, Massachusetts, a centuries-old forest has been removed to make way for a new, eco-friendly housing development. The locals are upset, but out-of-towners are flocking to put down roots in their dream homes. A tragedy soon leaves one of those new residents unmoored, and she feels the pull of the absent forest. And she's not alone - two other women are experiencing their own trauma and relationship to the land. They are drawn to save the last remaining oak tree.
This story really touched me, with the three main women characters going through the natural stages in life – adolescence, pregnancy, menopause, illness, grief, guilt, death. These themes are all entwined with our obligation to take care of our natural world as well. I felt for each of these characters and loved how they helped each other. There’s plenty of magical realism here, but it fits in well with the characters’ paths and their connections to each other as well as to nature. Plus, there’s the underlying mystery of the development and the desecration of the forest. Fascinating! The audiobook production and narration were very well done.
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