The Wishing Trees

By John Shors

Reviewed by Jane

Ian is an Australian businessman who lost his wife Kate, to cancer.  He and his young daughter, Mattie are having a very difficult time coping with the loss.   Kate wrote a series of letters to them both before she died, in which she detailed a trip around the world for them.

That’s what the book is about; she sends them to the places where she and Ian began their lives together, in hopes of showing Ian that even though  she’s not with them, the memories survive.
It’s not a new theme for a book.  Dealing with loss and grief is part of our universal human condition and we all have experienced loss on various levels, but the loss of a spouse and parent, is profound.

They travel through Japan, Nepal, Thailand, India, Hong Kong and Egypt, where they slowly begin to accept that even though Kate is no longer with them physically, she is still a huge part of their lives.

Mattie learns that despite her pain and suffering fromthe loss of her mother, there are children in the world who endure much more and still manage to survive and thrive.

The message of the book was nice and it’s always a good reminder to be grateful for those we love, both past and present.  The best part of the book for me was the descriptions of the places they visited.  In fact, I really want to visit the beaches of Thailand and make a trip to Hong Kong.

It’s obvious that John Shors has traveled quite widely and knows a lot about the places in the book, which really enhanced the story.  In all honesty, the travel aspect was the key to my enjoyment of the story.

So, pop into one of the 3 Tattered Cover locations in the metro area and pick up a copy of John Shors “The Wishing Trees” at 20 percent off.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 7th, 2011 at 5:20 AM and is filed under Dom and Jane Book Club. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.