Anna Davison Keller is 112 years old. Anna isn't the
typical centurion¸ most who survive to live to their
hundreds are frail, infirm, and have difficulty with
memory. Anna is hale, hearty and her mind is sharp as a
tack. Anna lives in the same home from her childhood on an
olive grove in the Sacramento Valley. Anna lives with her
daughter, granddaughter, and great granddaughter who is
expecting her own child. Five generations of Kellers under
one roof. Anna's granddaughter Callie is obsessed with
finding out why the Keller women live such long healthy
lives.
Callie has contacted a scientist Dr. Hashmi who would like
to study the Keller women as part of his super centurion
study. Dr. Hashmi believes there is something in the root
of their DNA that predisposes a person to be able to age
without the harsh side effects of aging. Anna longs to be
the oldest person alive in their world but she has no
desire to have her DNA or family studied. Unfortunately for
her the others out vote her and Dr. Hashmi arrives to take
their blood and begin the interview process. Anna having
lived to 112 has secrets that she would like to keep from
her family and maybe even from herself.
THE ROOTS OF THE OLIVE TREE is a complex moving novel of
five generations of first born Keller women. The author
Courtney Miller Santo provides the reader with the point of
view of each of the Keller women. The reader learns how the
Kellers came to Sacramento Valley and how the Olive trees
became the foundation of their lives. As each Keller women
narrates their personal history the reader is given the
opportunity to hear their deep dark secrets. As close as
the Keller women are each has kept a piece of themselves
secret from their family. While the study continues each
woman deals with their past and prays it won't ruin their
future. In Anna's case she has a secret buried so deep she
has subconsciously kept it from herself but will the
results of Dr. Hashmi's study expose the one thing Anna
never wanted to know herself to her family. If her secret
is exposed what will happen to her family?
I thoroughly enjoyed reading THE ROOTS OF THE OLIVE TREE. I
became fascinated by Anna's story and her family's history
so much that I kept forgetting there was a study to
discover their family's fountain of youth. Author Santo
provides a rich, captivating novel of a family whose roots
are as deep as those of the olive trees in their groves.
'In the olive grove you've got to be wise in the feet and
wild in the head.' At the heart of the beautiful debut novel
"The Roots of the Olive Tree" are five generations of
firstborn Keller women who live in the same house on an
olive grove in secluded northern California.
Matriarch Anna is 112 and trying to be the oldest woman in
the world - and succeeding heartily. Her daughter Bets,
granddaughter Callie, great-granddaughter Deb, and
great-great granddaughter Erin are also defying the limits
imposed on our lives. When a geneticist comes to study these
marvel of longevity, Erin announces she is pregnant with a
firstborn boy and the Keller women's world is blown wide
open. The family's lives, tied so closely with the land and
the olive trees, are richly evoked with memories echoing
across generations.
Told in turn through the perspective of each of the women,
the mystery of their existence is revealed in rich,
compassionate writing that will remain a treasure across the
generations.
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