- this edition published Hachette Australia 2018
- ISBN 978-0-7336-3938-8
- 387 pages
- source: my local library
Discovery. Desire. Deception. A wondrously imagined tale of two female botanists, separated by more than a century, in a race to discover a life-saving flower . . .
In Victorian England, headstrong adventuress Elizabeth takes up her late father's quest for a rare, miraculous plant. She faces a perilous sea voyage, unforeseen dangers and treachery that threatens her entire family.
In present-day Australia, Anna finds a mysterious metal box containing a sketchbook of dazzling watercolours, a photograph inscribed 'Spring 1886' and a small bag of seeds. It sets her on a path far from her safe, carefully ordered life, and on a journey that will force her to face her own demons.
In this spellbinding botanical odyssey of discovery, desire and deception, Kayte Nunn has so exquisitely researched nineteenth-century Cornwall and Chile you can almost smell the fragrance of the flowers, the touch of the flora on your fingertips . . .
My Take
The novel is a romantic mystery, not my usual fare of crime fiction: written with a dual time frame, with over a century between them.
Anna is renovating a house in Paddington in Sydney, left to her by her grandmother when the builders find some intriguing objects sealed up in the wall. Anna has a gardening business, and has a "botanical" background. Intrigued by what she has found she tries to find out something about their provenance. As she reaches back in history, so the other narrative in the story reaches forward.
The second chapter takes us to Cornwall in 1886, where, at Trebithick Hall, Elizabeth's dying father requests that she goes to Chile, to carry out a task that he had intended to do himself.
The two narratives are interlaced throughout and gradually Anna pieces together a family history that she had no idea about.
A good read.
My rating: 4.5
About the author (website)
Kayte Nunn is a former book and magazine editor, and the author of two contemporary novels, ROSE'S VINTAGE and ANGEL'S SHARE. THE BOTANIST'S DAUGHTER was Kayte's first novel of transporting historical fiction, followed by THE FORGOTTEN LETTERS OF ESTHER DURRANT, set largely in the atmospheric Isles of Scilly.
I now live in the Northern Rivers of NSW and am also a mother to two girls. When not writing, reading or ferrying them around I can be found in the kitchen, procrasti-baking.
I love nothing more than a generous slice of warm cake, a cup of tea, a comfortable place to sit and a good book to read!
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