It’s 1913 when Mina, the young and carefree daughter of a Jewish merchant, roams into a forest on the edge of the Baltic Sea looking for mushrooms. Instead, she encounters a gang of unruly, charismatic Bolsheviks—an adventure that will become the stuff of familial lore for generations to come. Intending to save her from further corruption, & in an act that forever changes the trajectory of their family’s life, Mina and her eldest brother, Jossel, board a ship to England.There the threat of a different war looms large. When WWI hits, Jossel is sent to the front, where he keeps a severely wounded soldier in his unit alive ‘til morning by telling him tales—including that his sister Mina will marry him if he survives. The soldier lives & asks for Mina’s hand, their marriage uniting two growing trade dynasties. But over time Mina & Jossel will learn that not everyone in their family has survived the wars and pogroms, even as they & their offspring struggle to build new lives in Liverpool in the midst of ever-shifting discriminations.Based on the author’s own family history and legends,The Story of the Forestis a remarkable record of family lore; a meditation on the power of stories to ground us, particularly in the face of life’s inevitable losses, told with a keen wit & a sharp eye to the charms & the foibles of family by masterful British novelistLinda  Grant.