The Garden of Lost Names

Some names are lost. Some are buried on purpose. When Clara Whitfield inherits a crumbling stone cottage in the Scottish Highlands, she expects damp walls and old furniture. What she finds is a locked garden, a trunk full of letters in Arabic and English, and a name no one in her family has spoken in fifty years: Layla Haddad. 1917. A young woman writes by the light of a jasmine-covered fountain. A promise is made. A child is taken across the sea. And a garden is planted to remember what the world wanted her to forget. As Clara follows the scent of jasmine from Scotland to Cairo, she uncovers a story of forbidden love, a forced adoption in 1924, a solicitor who tried to disappear, and a family that built silence into its foundations to survive. But some silences weigh more than others. And in a storage unit in Edinburgh, her brother Marcus is about to find the letter that proves it was never just one secret. Perfect for fans of Kate Morton, Kristin Hannah, and Lucinda Riley — The Garden of Lost Names is the sweeping, emotional first book in a four-part family saga spanning Scotland, Egypt, and Lebanon. A story about the names we inherit, the ones we lose, and the ones we fight to reclaim. Book One of The Garden of Lost Names series. Can be read as a standalone. Tropes: dual timeline, found family, hidden letters, Scottish cottage, secret garden, Arab-Scottish heritage, adoption secret, emotional family saga.