The Eve Tree – Rachel Devenish Ford
When I describe this book to people, I tell them that it’s about family, mothers and daughters, the land and belonging to it, mental illness, love and fires. It also has trees. And a donkey. And some goats. I also tell them that it was written by a hippy mother of four children who lives 6 months of the year in a community in rural India. Rachel blogs at Journey Mama, I’ve been reading there a while now, living vicariously through her a tiny bit. Mostly for the beautiful beautiful places they stay. Right now, near a lake close to the foothills of the Himalayas in Nepal. Absolutely stunning.
Anyway, the book. A simple story, about a family on a ranch that is threatened by a forest fire. This event is a catalyst for the coming together of the Molly’s family – her mother, children and husband to join together to save their property. As the pressure and stress of this event build, long time issues, past regrets and brokenness spills out of the cracks.
The strength of this book is the way the author writes about relationships…their complexities, and the baggage that we bring to them, how messy they can be, and how generational they actually are, but running beneath it all in this story is the strength of love. That love doesn’t always come easy, never comes cheap, but brings healing and reconciliation. It wasn’t syrupy or tidy. This book is very real, but graced with redemption and hope.
