The Beast's Garden
  • Published: 27 June 2016
  • ISBN: 9780857980410
  • Imprint: Vintage Australia
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $26.00
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The Beast's Garden

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Paperback
27 Jun 2016
EBook
3 Aug 2015
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‘Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world …’
A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and The Beast, set in Nazi Germany.

‘Ava fell in love the night the Nazis first showed their true nature to the world …’
A retelling of the Grimms' Beauty and The Beast, set in Nazi Germany.

It’s August 1939 in Germany, and Ava’s world is in turmoil. To save her father, she must marry a young Nazi officer, Leo von Löwenstein, who works for Hitler's spy chief in Berlin. However, she hates and fears the brutal Nazi regime, and finds herself compelled to stand against it.


Ava joins an underground resistance movement that seeks to help victims survive the horrors of the German war machine. But she must live a double life, hiding her true feelings from her husband, even as she falls in love with him.

Gradually she comes to realise that Leo is part of a dangerous conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. As Berlin is bombed into ruins, the Gestapo ruthlessly hunt down all resistance and Ava finds herself living hand-to-mouth in the rubble of the shell-shocked city. Both her life and Leo’s hang in the balance.


Filled with danger, intrigue and romance, The Beast’s Garden, a retelling of the Grimm brothers' ‘Beauty and The Beast’, is a beautiful, compelling love story set in a time when the world seemed on the brink of collapse.
  • Published: 27 June 2016
  • ISBN: 9780857980410
  • Imprint: Vintage Australia
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 448
  • RRP: $26.00
Categories:
Share…

About the author

Kate Forsyth

Dr Kate Forsyth is an award-winning author, poet, and storyteller. Her most recent novel is
The Crimson Thread, a reimagining of ‘The Minotaur in the Labyrinth’ myth set in Crete during the Nazi invasion and occupation of World War II.

Other historical novels include Beauty in Thorns, a reimagining of ‘Sleeping Beauty’ told in the voices of four women of the Pre-Raphaelite circle of artists and poets; The Wild Girl, the story of the forbidden romance behind the Grimm brothers’ fairy tales which was named Most Memorable Love Story of 2013; and Bitter Greens, a retelling of ‘Rapunzel’ which won the 2015 American Library Association award for Best Historical Fiction.

Kate has a Doctorate of Creative Arts in fairy tale studies, and is also an accredited master storyteller with the Australian Guild of Storytellers. She has taught writing retreats in Australia, Fiji, Greece, and the United Kingdom.

portrait photo of Kate Forsyth

Also by Kate Forsyth

The Blue Rose
The Wild Girl
Psykhe
The Crimson Thread
Beauty in Thorns
Dancing on Knives
Bitter Greens
See all

Praise for The Beast's Garden

'One of Australia’s favourite storytellers at the top of her game, Forsyth’s gorgeous prose and eye for detail makes The Beast’s Garden a remarkable, enthralling story of love and loss...'

2015 Booktopia Books of the Year

Set in WW2, this retelling of Beauty of The Beast will set your emotions on edge. Set against a tumultuous backdrop of the Nazi regime, the choices made by these characters will set them on a path that cannot be undone. Stunningly written, The Beast's Garden explores the transformation of people as their morals are tested while evil rules supreme on every front. A beautiful novel that easily stands up against so many others set in the same era.

Shannon, Chermside, Dymocks