Since her son's tragic death, Claire Baumsarg has struggled to keep her family together as she runs a California citrus ranch with her husband. Even while fighting cancer, she refuses to sell the ranch, though her marriage has already crumbled and the ranch is struggling financially. When Minna, a young Caribbean woman, appears out of nowhere to become Claire's caretaker, her presence seems like a miracle. But is it a curse instead?
In her second novel, The Forgetting Tree, Tatjana Soli vividly evokes the fertile earth, ripe fruits and wild brush of the Baumsargs' isolated ranch, and its magnetic pull on Claire. She explores the fissures between Claire, her ex-husband and their two daughters--now grown but still scarred and haunted by the death of their brother. The ties of land and family are Claire's greatest treasures, but circumstances and the enigmatic Minna may be conspiring to dissolve both relationships.
Claire and Minna are strong, complex characters, and Minna in particular becomes infinitely more interesting as Soli reveals her true history. As Claire becomes increasingly dependent on Minna, though, she turns a willfully blind eye to the idea that her companion may not be what she seems. Thus their mutual downward spiral is compelling, but frustrating, to watch, and the ending feels both melodramatic and unsatisfying.
A haunting exploration of the bonds that bring us together and the tragedies that threaten to rip us apart, The Forgetting Tree, like its characters, is complicated, evocative and memorable. --Katie Noah Gibson, blogger at Cakes, Tea and Dreams