FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 19, 2019; Hartford, CT – “Tree of Lives,” a family tragedy was written by Connecticut-native, Elizabeth Garden, “as an attempt to raise a sunken death ship and understand the rusted hulk for what it is.” In her book, which samples many styles, speaks an eclectic language, at once sophisticated and polite as well as raw and ruthless, Garden elucidates an elaborate 20th Century dynasty — her family — in a way that secured her the International Book Awards Finalist prize in Cross-Genre fiction.
The “Cross-Genre” category is the Ironman or the decathlon competition of the book world. To place in this cut-throat race, a cross-genre author must show he or she can write in many styles; and can write all of them exceptionally well. Garden’s two-time award-winning “Tree of Lives” is a 94,000-word masterpiece of the myriad and minute, with multitudinous characters spanning generations. Every page is worthy. Garden is an insouciant writer in talking about the terrible problems that infected her childhood. Severe problems like those she survived, almost always result in sunken ships. But Garden’s self-styled protagonist, Ruth, emerges unscathed in this epic disaster of sexual abuse, physical violence, and emotional poisoning—a testimony of survival in these crimes inflicted on her by her parents and siblings, and others — beams a ray of hope for others who suffer from these maladies. Yet as it has always been and will be, ordinary people find hope and inspiration in the lives of extraordinary people. Garden is one such extraordinary individual, and is a heroine of the eastern seaboard, an inspiration to Connecticut, and a badge of courage and pride for Florida where she now resides.
Garden survived not only intact but in a condition that propelled her on to becoming an award-winning author and esteemed Art Director at prestigious East-Coast magazines. Given the severity of the crimes against her childhood, it is evident that she survived by being extraordinary, through her innate talents, her artistic and psychological brilliance, and her natural-born knack for weathering the ferocious squalls of life.
“I invented my own ideas about the spiritual side of life, based on nature and beauty in order to fill in a big missing piece for myself. I relied heavily on these to help me withstand my family’s stormy emotional climate. […] Through art, I was reassured and connected to something greater than my immediate surroundings.”
(Tree of Lives, 463)
Her life story sounds like a book, which Garden said, is how she came to write this partly-fictionalized version. “Sometimes,” she said, “I wonder if these strange incidents were placed in my path just so I could tell you about them.”
This year, Garden narrated and added the audio version of “Tree of Lives,” which is available through Audible. As the accolades are won, and readers around the world are inspired, we become certain that this 2019 International Book Awards-winning author is a light that will burn bright for the future yet to come.
“Tree of Lives” is available on Amazon
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For more information, please contact Dennis Payne, CityRoom.com. Dennis@CityRoom.com
