literary gluttony

Do you believe in coincidence? Or do you believe that everything happens for a reason? Is it all preordained? Or do things happen randomly?

A Fall of Marigolds questions just that. Telling the story of two women, 100 years apart, A Fall of Marigolds brings together people worlds apart. Susan Meissner creates lovable characters that you can’t help but feel like you’ve been friends with for years. We first meet Taryn, a single mother living in New York with her nine-year old daughter. Taryn currently spends her days working in a unique fabric store, still mourning the loss of her husband on 9/11.

We’re also introduced to Clara Wood, a nurse on Ellis island in 1911. A survivor of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, she has isolated herself on the island as a way to cope with the loss of the man she loved, even if she only knew him for a few short days. Clara finds solace in an immigrant who lost his wife after only being married a couple of weeks. As the story progresses, their lives begin to entwine.

Meissner does a spectacular job of relating the two women’s stories to each other and pulling the reader in. It was incredibly difficult to put this book down. A Fall of Marigolds is a novel that will last the ages; questioning how fast can you truly fall in love with someone and do coincidences really exist.