Leota's Garden: A Novel (A Contemporary Christian Fiction Story of Grace, Reconciliation, and Second Chances) - Softcover

Rivers, Francine

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1414370652 ISBN 13: 9781414370651

Publisher: Tyndale Fiction, 2013

Synopsis

“An emotionally compelling story” (Library Journal) about the devastation secrets can unleash on a family and the power of grace to bring second chances, from the New York Times bestselling author of Redeeming Love and The Masterpiece

Leota’s garden was once a place of beauty, where flowers bloomed and hope thrived. It was her refuge from the deep wounds inflicted by a devastating war, her sanctuary where she knelt before a loving God and prayed for the children who couldn’t understand her silent sacrifices.

Now, eighty-four-year-old Leota Reinhardt is alone, her beloved garden in ruins. All her efforts to reconcile with her adult children have been fruitless, and she voices her despair to a loving Father, her only friend.

Then God brings a wind of change through unlikely means: one, a college student with an agenda all his own who thinks he has all the answers; the other, a granddaughter Leota never hoped to know. But can the devastation wrought by keeping painful family secrets be repaired before she runs out of time?

“Rivers is a master gardener . . . using poignant humor and bittersweet revelation to open hearts to reconciliation.” Romantic Times

Also available in The Francine Rivers Contemporary Collection (e-book only).

About this title

Review

Acclaimed Christian fiction writer Francine Rivers's (The Atonement Child) Leota's Garden uses the image of the garden as a metaphor for the cycles of life that the characters experience. While the story revolves around a number of lives, they are all connected through Leota--an 84-year-old grandmother--and her garden, which was once a place of beauty and hope but has in recent years gone to ruin. Beginning in desolation--Leota has been neglected by her self-centered daughter, whose obsession with getting her own daughter into the best college has driven them apart--the novel slowly shows the weaving together of lives in the mysterious ways of grace: a proud and narrow-minded college student ends up learning more from Leota than he'd bargained for, and the granddaughter Leota had never been allowed to know shows up looking for some answers, and even more, looking for Leota herself. A garden blooms, the novel suggests, by getting one's hands a little dirty doing the hard work of love. --Doug Thorpe

About the Author

Francine Rivers began her literary career at the University of Nevada, Reno, where she graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree in English and journalism. From 1976 to 1985, she had a successful writing career in the general market, and her books were highly acclaimed by readers and reviewers. Although raised in a religious home, Francine did not truly encounter Christ until later in life, when she was already a wife, a mother of three, and an established romance novelist.

Francine and her husband, Rick, live in Northern California and enjoy the time spent with their three grown children and every opportunity to spoil their grandchildren.

Edition details

• Publisher: Tyndale Fiction
• Publication date: 2013
• ISBN 10: 1414370652
• ISBN 13: 9781414370651
• Binding: Paperback
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 464