Mulberry Park

by: Judy Duarte

Published by: Kensington Books (April release)

Reviewed by Jamie Driggers

Analisa has some questions for which the adults in her life just don’t have answers, so she’s determined to ask God. Her best bet, by her calculations, is the huge tree in the middle of Mulberry Park whose branches reach high into the heavens. Surely if she can get a letter up into its upper branches, God will be able to reach it and answer her. When Claire, a grieving mother, finds the letter and answers, she sets off a chain of events that will make “a community” where there wasn’t one before.

In this touching story, Judy Duarte weaves together an amazing cast of characters. Any single story line would have been formulaic, but she seamlessly switches from one perspective to another in such a way that I was never sorry to go, nor to return. It was such a natural flow that it seemed perfectly normal to switch from a little girl to an elderly man even though all they did was walk past one another.

Let me see if I can introduce the cast of characters. There’s Walter, the Korean War vet whose best pal and chess buddy has died, leaving him feeling purposeless, lonely, and struggling to not answer the siren call of the local pub. There’s Maria, the pregnant single mother who is just trying to make ends meet. There’s Sam, the attorney whose life was altered when he took guardianship of his estranged brother’s daughter. Add Hilda, who had to come out of retirement because of a poor investment but is plagued by memory loss. And Trevor is a young loner who has lost faith in anything good ever happening to him again. But in the context that is Mulberry Park, these strangers’ lives become so interwoven that they soon are interdependent.

I loved this story, or, better said, these stories. The characters are three dimensional and she only reveals their past as it is necessary. And their pasts are important, giving an air of mystery to this women’s fiction novel.

Armchair Interview says: Mulberry Park is highly recommended for a light read with depth.

Author’s Web site: http://www.JudyDuarte.com