The Story of the Forest: Shortlisted for the Orwell Prize for Political Fiction 2023

Product Information

Rabbi Baroness Julia Neuberger and New Generation Thinker Brendan McGeevor from the Pears Institute discussing stereotypes and also anti-Semitism There were no magical elements, there was instead a spoilt girl and a pompous brother, a group of boys who believed in ideas that were going to crush them. One of the most excitingly unforeseen results of starting this book blog was being invited to travel to Riga and discover more about current Latvian literature. My great grandfather was born in Latvia and moved to the US to avoid being conscripted into the army during WWI. My family has always been proud of that Latvian heritage and traveling there was a longterm goal so it was a thrill to finally experience life in Riga and connect with a cousin I've never met. I made a video about that experience which you can watch here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5HHP5AfG1k

It sounds like a serious and heavy multi-generational sage? It is an ambitious book, but it was not a heavy read at all. It’s actually fast-paced and humorous. The dry sense of humour reminder me of Lessons In Chemistry a little bit. It was very easy to read for a historical fiction! Itzik, the scheming younger brother who follows Mina into the forest and bears witness to her first kissMina's story of her forest experience is told and retold through the years, including one cinematic retelling. It is the foundation story of this family, for, if it hadn't happened, they would not have existed. And at the end Mina's great-granddaughter encounters the story in yet another way, providing a perfect ending to the book. Mina and Jossel never make it to New York because of the First World War, and instead stay put in Liverpool. What follows is a highly absorbing depiction of life in Liverpool's small Jewish community across the changing social mores of 20th century, including marriage and divorce, business and religious observance. We also follow Mina's daughter Paula to London in the late 1940s, where she works first as a secretary and then a continuity girl for a small film company.

At the heart of the novel is Mina, a young woman who dreams of a different life than the one her parents have planned for her. Through her experiences, we see the ways in which the immigrant narrative is carefully crafted and remade over time, as individuals and communities adapt to new circumstances and changing cultural norms. Jonathan Freedland exploring Jewish identity in fiction from Amos Oz, Ayelet Gundar-Goshen & Jonathan Safran Foer

Most read

In the case of The Story of the Forest, we are constantly reminded about Mina’s brush with the Bolsheviks. This is all very well and good but it becomes less interesting the more we hear it. The Story of the Forest” by Linda Grant is a captivating novel that spans across the 20th century, exploring the lives of a Jewish family and their journey of assimilation. The book begins in 1913 with a young girl venturing into the forest, setting the stage for a tale that is both intimate and expansive. Throughout the novel, Grant masterfully weaves together the individual stories of family members, each with their unique experiences and challenges. So begins a journey that sees Mina and her older brother Jossel leaving their family for the New World. They make it as far as Liverpool before an unexpected marriage, the outbreak of World War I, and a second marriage proposal get in the way of their American Dream, and the book then follows them and their descendants as they navigate life in twentieth-century Britain. A Baltic forest in 1913, Soho and the suburbs of Liverpool and the Jewish community that grows up there are the settings for Linda Grant's new novel The Story of the Forest. She joins presenter John Gallagher, Rachel Lichtenstein and Julia Pascal for a conversation about writing and Jewish identity in the North West as we also hear about Julia Pascal's play Manchester Girlhood and look at the re-opening of the Manchester Jewish Museum with curator Alex Cropper . One of the most impressive elements of the novel is the way in which, in an understated non-showy way, the narrative style of the book changes over time – reflecting both the ages of the characters and the norms of the society and time in which they are based – starting as fairy-tale, later a rather restrained English style post-war novel, and then a first party meta-fictional finish (with more gradual variations in between).

Linda Grant’s latest novel The Story of the Forest is, at it’s heart, a family saga. Following several generations of the same Jewish family over the course of a century, the novel follows their moves from Riga to Liverpool and, later, to London. The novel shifts tone when Paula is willingly seduced by two unscrupulous men and begins to hang out in cool Soho. One is a presenter on radio; the other, a film producer, is her new boss. But it is not to be. She is “rescued” by her brothers and reluctantly returned to the bosom of her family in Liverpool.

We follow the characters through critical points of their lives and many historical milestones as well. It is a story of family and roots, but I liked that it raised questions on narratives of history. We see what we want to see and how we want to tell a story. Not always the truths. But does it matter in the end? We always have the beginning and that led us here where we are.