The Sunflower Forest
By Torey Hayden
3.5/5
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About this ebook
Bestselling author Torey Hayden’s novel poignantly tells of a daughter’s attempt to grow up in the shadow of her mother’s haunted past. Warm, melancholy and evocatively rendered this book captures the essence of a family touched by sadness.
A haunting tale of a family who can't escape the consequences of their mother's tormented childhood. Hayden, a master storyteller, again turns her talent to fiction in this novel that combines a psychological thriller with a nuanced family drama.
Lesley’s Hungarian mother Mara – charming, childlike, lovable – is traumatized by her adolescent Holocaust experiences.
Though her American husband and daughters try to live a normal life, Mara holds them thrall to her moods and quirks. Lesley struggles to understand, but dealing with Mara is a severe strain which sets her apart from her peers.
But when Mara’s psychosis results in tragedy, Lesley goes to Wales in search of her mother’s remembered joy.
Torey Hayden
Torey Hayden is an educational psychologist and a former special education teacher who since 1979 has chronicled her struggles in the classroom in a succession of bestselling books. She lives and writes in the U.K.
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Reviews for The Sunflower Forest
42 ratings4 reviews
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5This is different from the work that Torey is known for- her non-fiction books. I am a huge fan of Torey's books and love each and every one that I have read- this one included. Fans of her non-fiction will easily recognize her style and flow in this story. Its a beautifully sad story about a mother's struggle to deal with her past in Nazi Germany. It is told through the eyes of her teenage daughter. Its been a long time since I've read it but it has always stayed with me.
- Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5This was the first "novel" I read by Torey and it was GOOD :)
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The action in Torey Hayden's physcological novel 'The Sunflower Forest' is seen through the eyes of the teenage daughter of a disturbed mother. She is embarrassed by her mother's strange ways so she does not bring her friends home. All Lesley wants is normality. This is contrasted with her boyfriend's family - not really happy together but at least normal.However Lesley's younger sister Megan is obsessed with details of the holocaust and may be partly responsible for opening a can of worms. Or maybe the mother's past just overwhelms her, resulting in a tragedy which takes Lesley across the world to try to come to terms with what she now knows.
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Torey's first fiction novel. I like her story line and plot.