Where the Forest Meets the Stars by Glendy Vanderah is touching tale of mysterious child who teaches two strangers to embark on a journey together towards fulfillment. I pondered some time over this book and Ikigai for some time. This seemed like a nice story but I find the self-development genre pulling me more these days. But after I was done reading this story, it took some time for me to process it all and left a mark on my mind for quite some time. So, as I blog about the story, I will try to keep out major story incidents but there might be some spoilers ahead and read through at your own risk.
Where the Forest Meets the Stars revolve around 3 major characters – Joanna, Ursa and Gabriel. Joanna, the protagonist of the story, has been dealing with the loss of her mother to breast cancer and being a survivor of the same. Joanna forces herself to a life of work from dawn till dusk to find meaning of life. Ursa appears in the life of Joanna one day, all bruised and barefooted. Ursa claims she was from planet Hetrayeh and came to earth school to witness 5 miracles. She confounds Joanna with her knowledge about many things. Unsure of what to do, Joanna takes her in. Joanna reaches out to the reclusive neighbour Gabriel to support her in the course of find more about Ursa. Till a certain point of the story, it seems like a brilliant fantasy novel. But slowly it starts to unravel into a drama/thriller that shows the human nature. It pushes the reader to guess the Ursa’s story which reveals a dark past. Eventually Ursa gets to see the 5 miracles she was hoping from the earth school but the story and how it unfolds left me craving for more.
There were a couple of issues in this book that I could personally relate. Most importantly, I am also dealing with cancer in the family and the uncertainty, dilemma Joanna went through makes Joanna as a character a lot more believable making it an enjoyable read.