A truly magnificent novel, one of the best I have read by Linda Grant. The principle of sticking to what you know best in writing has been applied here, with Jewish diaspora and Liverpudlian life featuring as strong themes. The narrative of a single existence, from a teenage encounter in a forest in pre-war Latvia through to the death as a centenarian in a nursing home in the UK, is the anchoring factor in The Story of the Forest. More crucially, Grant's point is that all our lives comprise constantly changing stories, where fact and fiction ultimately do end up merging, whether through intention or convenience, or even just inertia. Constant reinvention, or existence in a liminal zone, is part of the inevitable fate of the diaspora Jew. Grant writes wittily and poignantly throughout, capturing changing cultural mores and attitudes, both towards Jews and women (always her central characters). The genius of The Story of the Forest is that the reader knows that Mina's forest encounter — she is the novel's matriarch/heroine — is true, even if it becomes increasingly disbelieved as time goes on. An awful lot is packed into 280 pages. I would happily reread. 10/10.
By Linda Grant