Relational Time, Female Transgenerational Bonds and Herstory in Linda Grant’s <i>The Story of the Forest</i> (2023)

Focusing on Grant’s 2023 novel The Story of the Forest, this article explores how British-Jewish writer Linda Grant revitalizes the Jewish-British family saga by following four generations of Jewish women from a 1913 encounter in a Baltic forest to their eventual settlement in Liverpool. Drawing on theories of transgenerational and relational memory, Jewish feminist criticism, and contemporary feminist conceptions of generational and relational time, the analysis reveals how the novel constructs Jewish memory as transmitted through women’s stories. Grant transforms the traditional male-centered hero’s journey into a feminist, female-driven quest, positioning women as key agents in preserving memory and reshaping historical narratives. The article argues that this relational and feminist approach addresses the absence of female role models in Jewish historiography, reimagining fragmented Jewish female identity as interconnected across generations. Moreover, it offers a lens to understand the experiences of other women whose histories reveal the transformative power of female relationality in times of crisis.