Winter Garden: A Novel

It's actually 2 stories ....the mother's tale of Stalin's Russia/ Siege of Leningrad and the daughters' tale of being raised by this survivor....both were very interesting. I was drawn into the history and learned so much about Soviet Russia. The truth of it is very hard and sad, making it a difficult read at times. I must mention the narration. This is the first book I have purchased with truly EXCELLENT narration! I can't stress enough what a difference this made to the overall enjoyment of this book. Every emotion, every character and every accent was delivered with the obvious gift of an actress. I will never purchase another book again without rave reviews for the narration. What a difference! Bravo!

Powerful story. I listened to the audio of this, very well done. It is not an easy story to listen to, but beautiful all the same. The way Kristin Hannah tells the story both in the present day and back to Stalin's time works seamlessly. In the telling of the story love and redemption eventually are born. But before that great pain and loss. Sometimes almost too unbearable to hear. Recommend the listen.

I have downloaded over 100 Audible titles and this has proven to be the absolute best for story and narration. Susan Ericksen did a phenomenal job on this narration and the story moved me beyond belief.
Excellent! Excellent!
Thank you.

In the end I am glad that I decided to finish the book. The Mother's story is extremely interesting and well told although the ending is ridiculous.

However, getting to that point was like enduring Spring allergy fog. I just wanted to go to sleep and skip over the self-inflicted and over-dramatized pain of these women. The two daughters are obnoxious, self-absorbed and, well, silly characters. I never liked them and, frankly, they were hardly necessary to the good part of the story.
While, I know the story is fiction, I do expect my fiction to have some sense of reality. There is no way that a father (especially one portrayed as being as insightful as this one was) would have let that kind of animosity build up between a mother and daughters knowing that he knew why. The author tried to portray the father as the hero of all 3 women when I think he was the root cause of all of their problems. One long conversation with the daughters and half of that book would have been unnecessary.
I read True Colors and liked it but I'm not sure I will read any others by this author.
I really enjoyed the narrator.

It's possible to start reading this book with Part 2. Part 1 consists of: two Type A-personality daughters trying to reconnect with their semi-estranged, non-nurturing, cold, hostile, non-loving, PTSD-suffering Russian mother. That's about it. This needs about one or two paragraphs, not 12-14 chapters, or whatever the count actually is, and the author rambles on and on at an agonizingly slow, watching-paint-dry pace.

The narration was fine, but you have to like middle European dialect, the guttural "ell" sounds or your ears will burn and you will soon be fed up with the "fairy tales" and hostile utterances from - up until the end - the Mom from hell.

Bring on the violins, this one was painfully slow and incredibly dull.

I usually like Kristin Hannah's work but this was just over the top in schmaltzy sentimentality.

The characters' behavior is unnatural & unrealistic, in my opinion. Neither mother or daughters would repond as these women did, given their circumstances.
A good narration, however.

This was a great book. It was a bit slow in the first half,but the story in the 2nd part made up for it...couldn't put the headphones down once that started.

This is a startling book in many ways because things are set up one way and they unravel to reveal another world both in story and characterization. I enjoyed it thoroughly - poignant is a better description rather than depressing or sad. I am leaving the story with inspiration not sadness. Well written and well narrated.

The story is like none other I have ever read or listened to, there was no feeling of been there,done that, with this book. The "fairytales" just sucked me in, I felt a part of them. The performance was exquist. Susan Erickson made each character their own and just did an amazing job. So very worth listening to.

Was surprised by the depth here. We are told of the siege of Lenengrad in heartbreaking detail, much of which I'm ashamed to say I was ignorant of. Sad, story but is uplifting too as each character works out their life and family dynamics. Only a talented author like Kristin Hannah can pull this off. Loved this book and do enjoy this author. Great narration, the accents done are super. This book caused me to read up on the siege of Lenengrad, a sign of a good book indeed.