Nutmeg by Maria GoodinMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I received a copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an unbiased and honest review.
Meg grew up in a very unique household. Her mother has always told her that she got the scar on her face because of a crab's pincer that somehow got snapped off while her mom was making crab cakes. The pincer hit her face and crawled under the furniture. Meg's mother also told her that her first tooth was so sharp that she could use it to open cans.
Meg believed all those stories as true and until she was 8 years old, she would love to share those stories with her friends. However, she soon learned that her mother's stories were simply stories. She started to hate all those stories so much that she grew up to become a scientist. She turned her back on everything fiction and embraced logic and facts.
Years later, her mother is very ill and may not have long to live. She decides to visit her and when she does, she decides to stay and care for her. Her mother has not changed as still refuses to face facts even about her illness. She continues to cook and do things by herself even though her health is failing. Things changed when Meg's mother hires Ewan, a gardener who enjoys the old lady's stories and shares a few of his own.
Meg decides she wants to learn the truth about her childhood before her mom dies. And her boyfriend Mark insists that she force her mother to tell her the truth. She tries her best to find more information about a piece of paper she finds in her mother's old things but her mother refuses to tell her anything.
Meg tries to trace her past and finds people who are able to give her tidbits of information. But when she does learn the truth, she is faced with a decision to accept the stark truth or to look back to the more fanciful stories she was told.
Nutmeg is a great book which I am so thankful to have had found. The characters are wonderful, except for the boyfriend (I wanted to hit him on his head). And the stories are wonderful. I urge you to give the book a read.
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