Main description:

Meet the Keller family, five generations of firstborn women living together in the same house on a secluded olive grove in Northern California.

Anna, the matriarch, is 112 and determined to become the oldest person in the world. She rules the family home she shares with her daughter Bets, granddaughter Callie, great-granddaughter Deb, and great-great-granddaughter Erin. Though they lead ordinary lives, there is an element of the extraordinary to these women: all are defying longevity norms. Their unusual lifespans have caught the attention of a geneticist who believes they hold the key to breakthroughs in the aging process.

But Anna is not interested. She believes there are some truths that must stay hidden. Each of the Keller women conceals their true self from the others. While they are bound by blood, living together has not always been easy. And it is about to become more complicated now that Erin, the youngest, is back. Her return and the arrival of the geneticist who has come to study them ignites explosive emotions that these women have kept buried and uncovers revelations that will shake them to their roots.

Short description/annotation:

An extraordinary new voice in contemporary woman’s fiction, Courtney Miller Santo makes her magnificent debut with The Roots of the Olive Tree, a novel that will delight fans of Sarah Blake’s The Postmistress, The Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd, and the works of Kristin Hannah.

Set in a house on an olive grove in northern California, The Roots of the Olive Tree is a beautiful, touching story that brings to life five generations of women—including an unforgettable 112-year-old matriarch determined to break all Guinness longevity records—the secrets and lies that divide them and the love that ultimately ties them together.