Tree of Angels
by Penny Summer
Orion $90
An angel appears in a palm tree to tell 14-year-old Nina Karsavina to leave Russia. She begins an 80-year journey through Britain, France and Australia. In the English resort of Brighton, Nina makes a life with husband, Richard. He has admitted his homosexuality to her. She tries to accept it, but falls for another man. When Richard is murdered, she is left carrying the child of her lover, an Australian serviceman who also dies. Nina sinks into post-natal madness and her baby is taken away. The first of the book's three sections spans 1910 to 1918, covering Nina's teenage years in Russia and her move to Britain. The shorter second book takes place in 1933 in Australia and focuses on her daughter, Anne, while the third begins in Australia but leaps forward to 1990. In the last section Nina's granddaughter, Julia, returns to Brighton, and discovers the truth about her grandmother.
