Seventeen years ago, Meredith left her family and her beautiful childhood home vowing never to return. In the present day, she receives a letter informing her that the sole inhibitor of the now decaying house, a cousin, has died and that the property is to be sold. Calling her estranged sisters, they decide to go back one final time to lay some ghosts to rest. Meredith's narration is taken from her own child-to-adult observations, as well as from the secrets and stories her grandmother Lavinia told her on her death-bed. In the 1940s, Lavinia is a young woman determined to rise to the top no matter who gets in her way, be they family, friend or foe. Cold and manipulative, she rules her husband, sons and hated step-daughter, bending them to her will on a daily basis, whilst cunningly biding her time with her cruellest of strikes. Unsurprisingly her children become dysfunctional disasters, as do their own children in turn, and the family implodes time after time until it collapses completely.Meredith blends the different generations - grandparents, parents, uncles, aunts, cousins, sisters - together, telling their stories in and out of order, hinting of events to come and their devastating consequences, and musing over her conflicted feelings towards each family member. Deep and dark, she tells a haunting tale of regret, guilt and defiance.I really enjoyed this, it drew me in right from the very first page. I loved it's style and format, it's painfully fleshed out characterisations, it's destructive power. It's a book that's best read in as few sessions as possible so as not to interrupt its poignant flow; each damaged and desperate character has a role to play, with all roads leading back to the indomitable Lavinia. A book of how Lavinia Hathaway becomes married to Cal and runs the family farm. After Cal's Dad dies, he marries and his sister lives with him to help run the family farm. His brother leaves because his Dad gives Cal more than him.All the bad things that happen to members of the family. How a Mother controls this farm and everything connected to it. She will stop at nothing to keep control of the farm.Her granddaughters have all left the farm. So when their Uncle dies, they are drawn back to go through their Mother and Father's things. They must face the ghosts of their past and come to peace with it all.Normally this would not have been a book I would have read. So I was surprised I really enjoyed it immensely. It will keep you reading.
What do You think about El Legado Del Edén (2012)?
I was really into it at first, but it dragged on a bit too long and the suspense died for me.
—shschweitz
