This book by Kristin Hannah is a story within a story. The framing story is about a dysfunctional family in which the mother, Anya, has never shown any love or affection to her two daughters, Meredith and Nina, except for telling them occasional fairy tales late at night. The girls' father was the one who loved them demonstrably, but early on in the book he dies and leaves the family floundering. He made the girls promise to get to know their mother better. Meredith runs the family's apple orchards while thanklessly taking care of her octogenarian mother. As a consequence, she has no time for her husband and the marriage threatens to fall apart. Nina is a photo journalist traveling the world and rarely coming home, but when she does, she attacks her sister for putting their mother into a rehab center where she will get more consistent care and be safe. The mother is showing signs of possible dementia and Meredith is simply overwhelmed with her responsibilities. She is also furious with Nina for never helping or being present to share the burdens of the family business. The historical story, couched initially as a fairy tale, is extracted from their mother due to Nina's insistence as she promised her dying father. It is the story of a woman and her two children during the siege of Leningrad during WWII.Both stories are painful reading and way too long. There is redemption at the end, but it seems far fetched to have transformed these unlikable main characters in such a short time. Kirkus agrees with me of the on this point, noting that it is "a manipulative and contrived ending...Hannah... sabotages a worthy effort with an overly neat resolution." Publishers Weekly felt differently, saying "Readers will find it hard not to laugh a little and cry a little more as mother and daughters reach out to each other just in the nick of time."
I liked other books by Hannah much more, especially The Nightingale.
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