Customer Reviews

An Unexpected Forest

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Beautiful descriptive writing. A well crafted story about a handful of mismatched (unexpected) people who come together on a journey of discovery and change. One of my favorite books this year!

The author's gift for storytelling, and her knowledge of her environment, immediately lead the reader on an imaginative journey through Maine's wilderness and rural areas in search of the perfect spot to plant thousands of pine trees mysteriously delivered to the wrong address. Ms. Morse portrays her four disparate and intensely human main characters with compassion and humor, which makes their coming together both plausible and interesting. A delightful read. Let there be more of her.

In An Unexpected Forest, Morse's skill with details and the creation of believable and delightfully in-the-flesh characters make this an engaging book with a hopeful but not sappy message about humankinnd. There is a wonderful sense of quirkiness that drew me in immediately-starting with the mis-delivery of 1000 tree seedlings. I've read it twice and found it fully engrossing both times.

If you're like this reader, you can often tell from the first page or two if this is a book you'll want to read.
How could you not want to get to know Horace Woodruff, "pigeon-toed, overweight, nearsighted, inclined toward indigestion, in love with his wife of thirty-nine years, childless," ?
I'm hooked, and I'm sure I'm not alone!

If you want a big-hearted book about self-discovery for real people, read
Eleanor Morse's, An Unexpected Forest. In this beautifully crafted narrative, the
unexpected routinely happens and ordinary miracles unfold. I love this book.

There are so many things to appreciate about this book. The delivery of the trees at the book's beginning gets the story going in an unexpected direction, and from there, the writing keeps on surprising, with plot twists that never seem implausible. The writing is full of convincing detail that make the four characters who tell their intertwining stories come alive. It's hard not to relate to them, their flaws are so familiar. The humor throughout the book makes you believe in people and the potential for redemption in every connection between people. If you want a book that will make you believe the best about people, read An Unexpected Forest.

An Unexpected Forest is a quiet gem. It is full of surprise. Its apparently ordinary middle class couple, just retired ,reinvent themselves and connect with a young couple struggling towards away and towards each other. This book has soul. The author writes with full bodied awareness and compassion for the human condition without being preachy or sentimental. It is also filled with delightful humor.

I came to love the characters and found myself moved by an unspoken sense of hope and possibility for all of us. This is an extra-ordinary story written by a fine new writer reviewed by Barbara Potter

AN UNEXPECTED FOREST is a feast for the heart and soul. It is written with compassion and an abundance of style ... a stunning debut novel.