I am a fan of Kate Forsyth. I love the way in which she takes folk tales and put a new twist on them. I loved Bitter Greens (her take on Rapunzel), and The Wild Girl, her story behind the story of how the Grimm brother’s acquired their tales, from their next-door neighbor Dortchen Wild.
I happened to come across THE BEAST’S GARDEN when I was writing my own novel, FAREWELL MY LIFE, which is set partly in Germany in 1938. I was enthralled by her tale of the young woman who marries a Nazi officer whom she detests. (You will have to read this volume to find out why she married him.). Too late, she realizes he is working against the Nazis. By then, she has betrayed him.
The details in THE BEAST’S GARDEN show how much research Ms. Forsyth did on her novel. But what I remember most is the love that the Nazi officer felt for his young wife Ava.
