A year after her death, Ian and his 10-year-old daughter, Mattie, are still reeling from the loss of wife and mother, Kate, who succumbed after a long, drawn-out battle with cancer. On Ian’s birthday, he opens the letter Kate gave him right before she died. The family had planned a trip to Asia to commemorate Ian and Kate’s fifteenth wedding anniversary, and Kate’s letter asks Ian to take their daughter on that trip. Ian takes Mattie on a winding journey through Japan, Nepal, India, and Thailand, showing her everything they meant to see with Kate at their side. As they struggle through their travel, Ian tells Mattie stories about her mother, Mattie sketches the landscapes, and the two tie paper wishes to trees as messages to Kate to help them come to terms with their grief. Shors’ fourth novel is a moving, emotional story about coping and coming to terms with loss. Anyone who has lost a loved one will relate to this poignant novel. --Hilary Hatton
Review
"John Shors' The Wishing Tree is an affecting and sensitively rendered study of grief and loss, the healing power of artistic expression, and the life- altering rewards of travel to distant lands. I was deeply moved by this poignant and life-affirming novel." -Wally Lamb, author of She's Come Undone and Wishin' and Hopin'
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From
A year after her death, Ian and his 10-year-old daughter, Mattie, are still reeling from the loss of wife and mother, Kate, who succumbed after a long, drawn-out battle with cancer. On Ian’s birthday, he opens the letter Kate gave him right before she died. The family had planned a trip to Asia to commemorate Ian and Kate’s fifteenth wedding anniversary, and Kate’s letter asks Ian to take their daughter on that trip. Ian takes Mattie on a winding journey through Japan, Nepal, India, and Thailand, showing her everything they meant to see with Kate at their side. As they struggle through their travel, Ian tells Mattie stories about her mother, Mattie sketches the landscapes, and the two tie paper wishes to trees as messages to Kate to help them come to terms with their grief. Shors’ fourth novel is a moving, emotional story about coping and coming to terms with loss. Anyone who has lost a loved one will relate to this poignant novel. --Hilary Hatton
Review
"John Shors' The Wishing Tree is an affecting and sensitively rendered study of grief and loss, the healing power of artistic expression, and the life- altering rewards of travel to distant lands. I was deeply moved by this poignant and life-affirming novel."
-Wally Lamb, author of She's Come Undone and Wishin' and Hopin'