BLOG TOUR: The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn @kaytenunn @tlcbooktours @wmmorrowbooks #theforgottenlettersofestherdurrant

Beautifully-written and full of romance, nostalgia, mystery, and intrigue, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant by Kayte Nunn is a story of two women whose stories intertwine across history and through shared emotions. Beautiful and powerful!

About the Book

A cache of unsent love letters from the 1950s is found in a suitcase on a remote island in this mysterious love story in the tradition of the novels by Kate Morton and Elizabeth Gilbert .

1951. Esther Durrant, a young mother, is committed to an isolated mental asylum by her husband. Run by a pioneering psychiatrist, the hospital is at first Esther’s prison but soon surprisingly becomes her refuge. 

2018. Free-spirited marine scientist Rachel Parker embarks on a research posting in the Isles of Scilly, off the Cornish coast. When a violent storm forces her to take shelter on a far-flung island, she discovers a collection of hidden love letters. Captivated by their passion and tenderness, Rachel determines to track down the intended recipient. But she has no idea of the far-reaching consequences her decision will bring.

Meanwhile, in London, Eve is helping her grandmother, a renowned mountaineer, write her memoirs. When she is contacted by Rachel, it sets in motion a chain of events that threatens to reveal secrets kept buried for more than sixty years.

With an arresting dual narrative that immediately captivates the reader, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant is an inspirational story of the sacrifices made for love.

Reflection

It is no secret that I am finishing up my PhD in psychology, and I am very passionate about mental health and women’s issues. This book just spoke to me on so many levels, I found it to be a powerful story exploring the challenges women have faced throughout history.

Told in dual timelines and woven together through a collection of letters that are found in the present and link to the past, the structure of this book kept me captivated. I’ve always loved when books center around letters or journals from the past that open up a mystery to solve through time. In Nunn’s latest novel, I felt this magical thread that seemed to connect two women across history, and presented us with the takeaway that women’s challenges transcend time, no matter how much progress we have made.

When Rachel Parker find a suitcase of letters during her research, she becomes fascinated with the woman who wrote them. The letters lead her to more questions than answers, and she is determined to find the intended recipient of the letters. In 1951, Esther Durrant was a wife and mother, committed to a mental health hospital (let’s be real… a mental asylum) against her will. Rachel tracks the mystery of the letters down until she finds a woman named Eve, whose grandmother Esther wrote the letters containing references to a secret Esther was harboring. Now, Eve cares for her grandmother at the end of her life, when Rachel finds them in search of the key to the mystery of those forgotten letters.

Full of warmth and heart, I connected with all three women characters in the book. In a story of the strength that women bring to life, even at their most damaged and vulnerable, I lost myself in the best way.

Thank you to TLC book tours for my copy. Opinions are my own.

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About the Author

Without being really aware of it, I have always written – angst-ridden teenage diaries, bad poetry, little bits of stories and so on. After studying English and publishing at university I worked in book publishing as an assistant and then an editor. Realising that I wanted to do more of my own writing, I went to work in magazines, first as a features writer, a copy editor and then an editor.

After working as a magazine and book editor, I was a freelance features writer and project editor for five years, and it was during this time that I began to write fiction. Rose’s Vintage came about as I was musing one day what it would be like to arrive in Australia and find it completely unlike anything you’d expected. Its vineyard setting came about as a result of many visits to wineries during the years I edited Gourmet Traveller WINE magazine.

Since then, I have gone one to write four more novels, moving from contemporary fiction to dual-narrative historical mysteries: Angel’s Share, The Botanist’s Daughter, The Forgotten Letters of Esther Durrant, and The Silk House (to be published in July 2020 in Australia, and in 2021 in the UK).

Find out more about Kayte at her website, and connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.