The Fern Tattoo is a 2007 novel by the Australian author David Brooks

David Brooks (author)

David Gordon Brooks is an Australian author.He graduated from the Australian National University in 1974. He married Alison Summers in 1975. Brooks and Summers then studied abroad and received their M.A. degrees from the University of Toronto...

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Plot summary

Benedict's mother has recently died; after the funeral he receives a phone call from Mrs. Darling, a friend of his mother's. Benedict visits the old woman in the countryside where she tells him various tales that involve three generations of families. He spends the next several years visiting Mrs. Darling, rearranging his personal plans so he can visit her more often. One day he receives a phone call that Mrs. Darling is dying. He finally learns that the stories she has been telling him have been about his own family.

Epigraph

Yes, man is broad, too broad indeed. I'd have him narrower. - Dmitri Fyodorovitch Karamazov: The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov

The Brothers Karamazov is the final novel by the Russian author Fyodor Dostoyevsky. Dostoyevsky spent nearly two years writing The Brothers Karamazov, which was published as a serial in The Russian Messenger and completed in November 1880...

, Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Dostoevsky

Fyodor Mikhaylovich Dostoyevsky was a Russian writer of novels, short stories and essays. He is best known for his novels Crime and Punishment, The Idiot and The Brothers Karamazov....