The Roots of the Olive Tree by Courtney Miller Santo - TLC Book Tour

• Paperback: 336 pages
• Publisher: William Morrow Paperbacks; Reprint edition (April 23, 2013)

Courtney Miller Santo’s compelling and evocative debut novel captures the joys and sorrows of family— the love, secrets, disappointments, jealousies, and forgiveness that tie generations to one another

Meet the Keller family, five generations of firstborn women living together in the same house on a secluded olive grove in the Sacramento Valley of Northern California. Anna, the family matriarch, is 112 and determined to become the oldest person in the world. Strong in mind and firm in body, she rules Hill House, the family home she shares with her daughter Bets, granddaughter Callie, great-granddaughter Deb, and great-great-granddaughter Erin.

While the Keller women are bound by blood, living together has not always been easy. And it is about to become more complicated now that Erin, the youngest, is back, alone and pregnant, after two years abroad with an opera company. Her return and the arrival of a geneticist who has come to study the family’s unusual longevity ignites explosive emotions that these women have kept buried and uncovers revelations that will shake them all to their roots.

About Courtney Miller Santo

Courtney Miller Santo grasped the importance of stories from listening to her great-grandmother, who lives in Northern California. She learned to write stories in the journalism program at Washington and Lee University and then discovered the limits of true stories working as a reporter in Virginia. She teaches creative writing at the University of Memphis, where she earned her MFA. Her work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Los Angeles Review, Irreantum, Sunstone, and Segullah. She lives in Tennessee with her husband, two children, and dog. Her most prized possession is a photo of five generations of the women in her own family.
Visit Courtney at her website, connect with her on Facebook, follow her on Twitter, and see what she’s pinning on Pinterest.

What a wonderful book.  I loved reading about and following the daily lives of these 5 women. 

The author tells the story from different perspectives, taking us on a journey through all of the individual women's lives, showing us what they thought, what they did, the choices they made and ultimately how it all affects each and every one.

Having grown up with my great grandma up until she was 94, I will say the the author managed to capture the difference in ages, and therefore the difference in thought processes between the oldest of the ladies in the house, to the youngest pregnant one.

It was interesting, it was fun, and I recommend it :)

Thank you to TLC Book Tours for providing me with a review copy. I