The Linden Tree

THE LINDEN TREE is just about a perfect example of the gentle, thoughtful, nostalgic story of an old-fashioned family; it is set in the 1940s on an Iowa farm, told from the viewpoint of the ten-year-old youngest sister. At the story's outset, the children's mother has died suddenly, of meningitis. She has been buried under a linden tree on a hill on the family farm. The tree and its setting provide a reference point for the family's loving memories of her and their good-hearted efforts to find some happiness in the shadow of their loss. The sadness of losing a wie and mother is a constant in the story, but the movement of the narrative is toward healing and incorporating the feelings of love and loss into a wholesome appreciation of the present--of the family's blessings, as they put it. Apart from the account of the mother's death, there are no moments of high drama or sensational plot-twists in THE LINDEN TREE. Rather the story moves patiently and steadily along, telling of Aunt Katherine's joining the family, the arrival and departure of a charming transient hired man, the family's managing to have a merry Christmas in a sad time, their going to a church social, the county fair, the birth of a calf, doing the chores, canning the garden produce, and other homely, realistic details of life on the farm. It is an ideal book for young readers interested in the way real people live and have lived, and who take satisfaction in imagining a way of life both similar to their own and subtly different in its tenor. THE LINDEN TREE is a sane, well-crafted novel.

This is a beautifully written, poignant story that takes us into the heart of a grieving family after the unexpected and sudden death of the mother. The prose is crystalline and strong; the grief tender and real as slowly, small transformations of healing begin to occur. A great story for adults as well.