The Roots Of The Olive Tree: Amazon.ca: Courtney M Santo: Books

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Book Description

Publication Date: Aug 13 2012

An extraordinary new voice in contemporary woman’s fiction, Courtney Miller Santo makes her magnificent debut with The Roots of the Olive Tree, a novel that will delight fans of Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and the works of Kristin Hannah.

Set in a house on an olive grove in northern California, The Roots of the Olive Tree is a beautiful, touching story that brings to life five generations of women—including an unforgettable 112-year-old matriarch determined to break all Guinness longevity records—the secrets and lies that divide them and the love that ultimately ties them together.

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Product Details

Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: William Morrow (Aug 13 2012)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 006213051X
ISBN-13: 978-0062130518
Product Dimensions: 23.7 x 16.3 x 2.7 cm
Shipping Weight: 476 g

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)

Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #758,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Review

In a debut that takes a wry look at our obsession with ageing and its elixirs, Santo also raises interesting questions about the nature of family bonds. Daily Mail --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

From the Back Cover

Meet the Keller family, five generations of firstborn women—an unbroken line of daughters—living together in the same house on a secluded olive grove in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California.

Anna, the family matriarch, is 112 and determined to become the oldest person in the world. An indomitable force, strong in mind and firm in body, she rules Hill House, the family home she shares with her daughter Bets, granddaughter Callie, great-granddaughter Deb, and great-great-granddaughter Erin. Though they lead ordinary lives, there is an element of the extraordinary to these women: the eldest two are defying longevity norms. Their unusual lifespans have caught the attention of a geneticist who believes they hold the key to breakthroughs that will revolutionize the aging process for everyone.

But Anna is not interested in unlocking secrets the Keller blood holds. She believes there are some truths that must stay hidden, including certain knowledge about her origins that she has carried for more than a century. Like Anna, each of the Keller women conceals her true self from the others. While they are bound by blood and the house they share, living together has not always been easy. And it is about to become more complicated now that Erin, the youngest, is back, alone and pregnant, after two years abroad with an opera company. Her return and the arrival of the geneticist who has come to study the Keller family ignites explosive emotions that these women have kept buried and uncovers revelations that will shake them all to their roots.

Told from varying viewpoints, Courtney Miller Santo's compelling and evocative debut novel captures the joys and sorrows of family—the love, secrets, disappointments, jealousies, and forgiveness that tie generations to one another.

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Most helpful customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Superbly Crafted Debut Novel!! Sep 16 2012

By Louise Jolly TOP 50 REVIEWER

Format:Hardcover

Story Description:

Harpercollins Publishers|August 13, 2012|Trade Paperback|ISBN: 978-0-06-221996-1

Five generations of firstborn Keller women live in the same house on an olive grove in secluded northern California. Anna is 112 and trying to be the oldest woman in the world and succeeding heartily. Her daughter, Bets, granddaughter, Callie, great-granddaughter, Deb, and great-great granddaughter, Erin are also defying the longevity norms. When a geneticist comes to study the women at the same time Erin announces she is pregnant with her firstborn boy, the Keller's roots are shaken wide open. Told in the third-person perspective of each of the women, the story and mystery of their existence is revealed in compulsive prose and compassionate drive.

My Review:

Five generations of firstborn women, living together in Hill House which is located in a secluded olive grove in northern California is the amazing setting for this story. Meet the Keller family: Anna, the matriarch is 112-years-old; Elizabeth or Bets is her daughter and she is 90-years-old; then Calliope or Callie her granddaughter; Deb, her great-granddaughter, and Erin, her great-great granddaughter.

Dr. Amrit Hashmi, a geneticist, learns about the Keller women and is coming to investigate, collect blood samples, and take an oral history all in the hope of discovering the reason to their amazing longevity. Each woman has a different opinion about his coming, but Elizabeth (Bets), is worried that he may uncover her secret that she's held for so many years.

Deb, is in Chowchilla prison and an upcoming parole hearing has brought her daughter, Erin home after a long absence. She arrives with a secret of her own. Actually, each of the women in this family habours secrets of their own and although the friction between the members of this family often leads to fights, it's the strong roots of the olive grove that binds them together.

I enjoyed some of the characters more than others, like Anna for example who is just too old and sweet not to like. However, her great-granddaughter, Deb is selfish and self-centered and for a woman in prison for a very good reason, I don't think she is entitled to have these feelings.

For a debut novel, Courtney Miller Santo has done a remarkable job in writing this novel. The story was superbly engaging, the characters were very well developed, and really gave a believable voice of each of the women. I won't have any trouble recommending The Roots of the Olive Tree to everyone I know. I loved the cover of this book and it was an all-round super read! I was sorry to see it end.

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Amazon.com: 3.7 out of 5 stars 105 reviews

26 of 27 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars The Roots of the Olive Tree July 16 2012

By Sandra Brazier - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review

Anna, Bets, Callie, Deb, and Erin are five first-born women, representing five generations of the Keller family, still living. Anna is 112. As the story opens, she is the second oldest living human being in the world. She prides herself on her longevity, and all of the five generations of daughters, except Bets, are excited that Dr.Amrit Hashmi, a geneticist, is coming to investigate the reason for their longevity. Betts holds in her heart secrets about her family that no one else knows. She fears that the geneticist may discover those secrets and divulge them.

This tender story, narrated by various, well-developed characters throughout its unfurling, is wonderful. The author's depictions of the Keller family show us the importance of acceptance of the imperfections and faults that are the undeniable frail and flawed human condition. The characters inspire the reader to value and savor familial relationships, cherishing the ties that bind us, and reminding us to treasure the time we have with our relations.

Setting this sensitive story in the beautiful and fertile family orchards of olive trees is perfect. The strong, old roots of the olive trees mirror the ties that bind this family together. The orchards represent the ongoing tradition of the family, the nurturing of whose trees provide their livelihood and wealth and sustenance. These ancient trees that were brought over to America from Australia show the significance of family and deep ancestral roots. This book is a veritable treasure.

13 of 15 people found the following review helpful

2.0 out of 5 stars Secret Life of Bees/Alice Hoffman Wannabe (Begging for Someone to Buy the Movie Rights) Nov 25 2012

By J.D. Rowan - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Hardcover

The first third of the story was fairly well told and I don't hate the writing style, but the book suffers from either the author's lack of planning or a decent editor (or both.) There were glaring mistakes in the narrative that ruined its flow. At the beginning of the book Anna goes down alone to glean the olive groves, yet at the end of the book the reader is told that one of Anna's habits since she has reached 100 has been to sit in perfect stillness unless people are around. Bets's husband, Frank, is said to have been born to a Mormon family, but that same family is also said to have come from Italy, and then later Bets references Frank singing Gaelic lullabies to his children that he learned from his grandmother. As a grown man Frank proposes to a 19-year-old Bets in 1927, although according to the chart in the front they married in 1937 and Frank would have only been 11 in 1927. There are at least two separate references to "the war" which make no sense. Bets says that they were all crazy from the war when she talks about Frank's proposal. Would that have been WWI and they were still crazy about it 19 years later or would it be WWII which hadn't happened yet? In the penultimate chapter the author describes Frank as standing in the posture he'd been taught in high school when they were "readying everyone for war." Once again, which war could that possibly have been if Frank was born in 1916 and would have been in high school from about 1930-1934 or so? At the beginning of Chapter 20 Callie is in her bedroom on the phone, but a page later she suddenly converses with the other characters sitting on the porch. Another problem, for me, is that so many characters are barely fleshed out and are probably not necessary to the story itself. Why do Bets, Callie, and Deb each have so many brothers if they aren't going to appear in the story in any fashion? The book would have been virtually unchanged if each of those women had no siblings. What was the point of Deb's whole storyline? What are Frank and Guy doing in this story? Overall, the story was marginally entertaining,but there were too many threads that went nowhere. It's as if the author herself could not keep track of the characters. I was left with the impression that Ms. Santos was deliberately trying to write a book for Hollywood -- it's a bit cloying, lacks a consistent message, but is tailor-made to cast a bevy of older actresses and one younger star.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging family narrative Aug 30 2012

By Z Hayes - Published on Amazon.com

Format:Hardcover|Amazon Vine™ Review

I love reading stories that have unique settings and when I saw the beautiful cover of this book and its interesting setting, an olive grove in the Sacramento Valley in Northern California, I knew I had to read it. The story revolves around five generations of the Keller family - there's matriarch Anna who is 112 years old and the second oldest woman in the world; her daughter Bets who is 90 years old; granddaughter Callie; great-granddaughter Deb; and, Deb's daughter Erin, who is Anna's great-great-granddaughter. Anna presides over the family at her residence, Hill House which is close to the olive grove. Throw in a geneticist who is intrigued by the family's history of longevity and wants to discover their secret and you have quite a story.

There's plenty of secrets in this novel pertaining to the older women's longevity and also the secrets each of them harbors. In a novel that appears cluttered with so many important characters, it may seem that character development might not be satisfactory. Not so the case with this book - each character has a distinctive voice and the reader is able to glean insights into each character's thoughts, fears, aspirations, etc. It helps that the author chose to tell the story from multiple points of view so that each character has a turn, and in doing this, readers are afforded an intimate close-up of how these individuals think and feel. Admittedly, I found some of the women's stories more compelling than others, but it still made for a riveting read. It is also a testament to this debut novelist's talents that she is able to provide distinct voices to each character yet also weave together a compelling story of what makes and completes a family. I loved the story and was sad to see it end. If you enjoy this and would like to read another story about family secrets amidst beautiful settings, I'd recommend Kate Morton's The Forgotten Garden: A Novel.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 105 reviews 3.7 out of 5 stars

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