A FALL OF MARIGOLDS

By Susan Meissner

⭐⭐⭐⭐ ¼ (Goodreads: 4.09)

GENRE: Historical Fiction

PART OF A SERIES? No

WORTH READING? Yes

SUMMARY:

Two women are connected by a splendid scarf that has been passed down through the generations…

September 1911 — Nurse Clara cannot bear returning to Manhattan from Ellis Island, which holds too many painful memories for her, specifically of the man she loved falling to his death in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire.  While looking after a sick immigrant whose grief echoes her own, Clara becomes curious about a name stitched into the scarf he carries. This small detail draws her into a mystery that challenges her beliefs and forces her to re-examine the past. What she uncovers may either shatter her or set her free.

September 2011 —Taryn, a widow, believes she’s coping well. She is running a boutique fabric shop and raising her daughter on her own on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. But when a photo resurfaces in a national magazine, she’s thrust back into the memories of September 11, the day she lost her husband in the World Trade Centre attacks — and the day a stranger pulled her to safety. Could a reappearance from the past and a century-old scarf help her see her life from a new perspective?

Opening line: “The length of floral-patterned challis rested on the cutting table like a bridal bouquet undone.”

A Fall of Marigolds is set in two main eras. This historical fiction novel travels between the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire and the 9/11 catastrophe.

Both Clara and Taryn are intriguing and likeable. Even as I read one character’s chapter, I was eager to find out what was happening with the other character.

The beautiful scarf in A Fall of Marigolds is almost its own character as we follow its journey through the years. I really appreciated the clever motif as it threaded everything together.

This is the first fiction book I’ve read that takes the reader into what it was like on that horrid day, 9/11. When a book transports me and educates me at the same time, I consider that a blessing. What a heart-wrenching day 9/11 must have been; it’s almost impossible to fathom what all the victims and their loved ones had to endure.

Susan Meissner writes very vivid descriptions. Here are a couple of examples from A Fall of Marigolds so you can get a feel for her writing: “… a shimmering circle of rubies and sapphires, dazzingly bright” and “Dozens of sun rays from the window… reached for the necklace like eager hands.”

Regarding love, the insightful Susan Meissner writes: “…love is not a person. It is not of this Earth at all…It is given to us not to hold on to or hide from, but to give away.”

My only (small) gripe with A Fall of Marigolds is that some of the romance content was a bit fluffy, for want of a better word.

A Fall of Marigolds will definitely go down as one of my favourite Susan Meissner books! I rode an emotional roller-coaster and would very much recommend this novel.

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Other books by Susan Meissner that I also thoroughly enjoyed are:

Only the Beautiful and

The Nature of Fragile Things

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