Winter Garden by Kristin Hannah

This book is a story of two very different sisters who never understood thir cold distant mother. Anya, their mother, grew up in Russia but never shared the details of her hard life there in Leningrad during World War II. I started out listening to this as an audiobook and enjoyed the Russian accent of the character of Anya which stayed with me as I finished it in book form. The daughters wonderful, loving father dies but tells them they need to hear the rest of the fairy tale that their mother had told part of to them as children. Though their mother is reluctant they gradually hear the rest of the story from Anya and realize she is telling them of her life. Bonding builds and repairs the relationship. The historical information and the emotional elements in this story were satisfying.