Interesting historical fiction about the seed trade in Germany. Had some difficulty connecting to the women in the book, yet I appreciated this novel. Thank you NetGalley for the copy, all opinions are my own.

It's the first time that i have read a book by Petra Durst-Benning and cannot wait to read more. A very enjoyable book and one that i didn't want to end. Loved the cover, which was initially what drew me to the book in the first place. Recommended.

My thanks to Netgalley and the Publishers for my copy.

Not my sort of book at all. I thought I'd try a book in translation to try on a new, but familiar culture. It's a great translation, and it's well written, but all the same, not my type of story. I am thinking there will be many people who will enjoy it as I know many people love romances, just not me. Sorry.

The Seed Woman by Petra Durst-Benning (translated by Edwin Miles) is the first book of the Seed Trader’s Saga. Set in Gonningen, a village in the Swabian Mountains of Germany where seed trading is the main source of income for its residents in the 1850s. A young woman, Hannah Brettschneider, travels from Nuremberg to find Helmut Kerner, the eldest son of the wealthy Kerner family. She’s pregnant and Helmut is the father. Problem? He’s engaged to be married to Seraphine Schwarz. Helmut quickly marries Hannah and eventually Valentin, his brother, marries Seraphine as he has long loved her despite her affections for his brother. As everyone lives under one roof, jealousy and manipulations begin as the brothers plan to expand their business into other regions. Hannah begins to show interest in the seed trade and offer new ways to conduct business. Will they listen to Hannah, an outsider, and try her new methods? Will the business flourish?
I labored through this book. Pushing myself to finish it. I made it through 60% of the book when a particular scene made me stop. It would so disturbing and unsettling that I didn’t want to continue. I realized that I didn’t care about the characters, especially Seraphine who was a bitch as she treats Valentin horribly and plots to worm her way back into Helmut’s heart, who didn’t love her in the first place and saw Hannah’s arrival as a blessing in disguise. The details of the regions and the seed trade are extensive and beautiful. I liked Hannah as the hardworking outsider who shows the village that there are other ways to do things. And she was the only character I liked. I do not recommend The Seed Woman. It is one of those historical novels where the historical details are extensive with very little or unexciting action.

The Seed Woman
is available in paperback and eBook

An excellent example of historical fiction, based on the seed trade in Europe in the 1800s. A touching romantic triangle, this book gave me so much information on a time I had not read about before.

https://bookstalebyme.wordpress.com/2017/10/30/the-seed-woman-book-review/

My favorite character in this novel, Hannah, met Helmut Kerner on one of his seed trading journeys, and becomes pregnant by him. She travels to his home town to let him know he is going to become a father. Helmut is engaged to marry Seraphine, but takes full responsibility for impregnating Hannah and marries her instead. Seraphine recoils in horror and denial, and her obsession with Helmut is an ongoing disruption in the Kerner family, even after she marries Helmut's brother.

I found this to be a well-written book, yet it has a somber tone and a feeling of imminent tragedy that didn't let up throughout the entire book. I would have loved for events to give me a sense of more 'breathing room' as I read; but that didn't stop me from reading it all in one day. I was happy to learn there will be a follow up book, because though this one didn't end in a cliffhanger, nothing really seemed resolved at all. I will read the next book in the series, even if it is somber and tragic, so there's that ...

I did not enjoy this book at all. Not one minute of it. I found the characters annoying and simpering and truly exhausting to read. The story-line just about drove me crazy; I am not sure that people in that time and place actually talked and felt the way it was portrayed. The premise is amazing and what drew me to the story in the first place, but it certainly didn't meet up with the expectations that I had.
This could have been a great book, but alas, it was not. And the end, OMGOSH. That was so not worth the slog that this book was.

I enjoy reading novels that focus on “microhistories” – that is, a narrow aspect of social history and its impact on the surrounding world. Petra Durst-Benning’s The Seed Woman, first published in 2005 in German and recently translated by Edwin Miles, narrows its gaze on the seed-traders of Gönningen in the Swabian Mountains of southwestern Germany.

Many residents of this small village made their living in the seed trade. These enterprising men and women used various methods of travel to distribute their goods on established routes (their “Samenstrich,” or seed-line) around the country, throughout Europe, and even abroad.

The book will whisk you away on its characters’ journeys on foot and via cart and aboard ship to the Netherlands and across the Black Sea to distant Odessa. Farmers and gardeners depended on this regular commerce to grow fruit and vegetable crops and plant heirloom bulbs to beautify their environment.

The novel’s heroine is Hannah Brettschneider, an innkeeper’s daughter from Nuremberg who had become pregnant after a one-night stand with one of the hotel guests. When she makes her way to Gönningen to find her baby’s father, Helmut Kerner, he’s astonished to see her again. Her presence creates instant tension, because Helmut’s already agreed to marry the beautiful Seraphine. A woman with her head in the clouds, Seraphine had been told from a young age that she was a child brought by the fairies… and she actually believes it.

Pulled in two directions, Helmut ultimately decides his responsibility lies with Hannah and her child. What’s more, Hannah’s cheerful personality meshes well with his, and as they get to know each other better, they make a good couple. Helmut’s engagement to Seraphine gets broken off, but he doesn’t seem to mind; with her disconnection from reality, I couldn't blame him. However, Seraphine refuses to give up on Helmut. Her disturbed, obsessive behavior sends the book down many dramatic, often ridiculous avenues.

The storyline would have been more believable if Seraphine’s personality had been more nuanced. Despite the issues with character development, the rest of the plot was interesting enough that I kept turning the pages. I enjoyed viewing the changing of the seasons along with the Kerner family, learning more about the seed trade, and seeing Hannah’s ongoing transformation from city girl to “seed woman.”

(Posted at Reading the Past)

This is definitely a niche novel that defies genre. It was originally published, in German, in 2005 so thanks to Amazon for having world literature translated and published in English and to Netgalley for the ARC. Is it historical fiction? Yes- it's set in the Swabian mountains in the 1850s. That was a new one for me. Is it about a romantic triangle? Yes but it's also about seed trading, which is something I'd not read about before in nonfiction let alone in a novel. You'll learn a little bit while reading this, which is a great benefit. It's interesting read.

The background of this was fascinating and I really think the author should put this at the start of the book to show readers just how based on true facts it is! The seed trade in a German village might sound like a nice gentle read, but this was a tough industry to be in and an impossible life to get out of. It was cut throat to say the least, but what a fascinating account of a real life community and trade!
The love story was also nicely fraught with tension but Helmut and his family did seem to make some odd decisions about staying in Gönningen,and how to live with these two women fighting it out. They do go through some tough times however and it was very interesting the twists and turns of a fictional story based in a real life background and setting.
There’s plenty scope for real life booktrails here in both Gönningen, and the Dutch bulb growing area in the Netherlands. Really unique and I’m really pleased I spent time in these places I’d never been to before!

I had a hard time getting into this book. The characters seemed to be caricatures or real people and I found them boring and uninteresting. Since I did not finish the book, I do not intend to publish a review.

This is a novel what we call in The Netherlands a "streekroman" - a traditional family chronicle set in a rural area in an era in the past. Not my normal pick in novels. But I was attracted by the cover of the book.

The book is written by a German author and is set mostly in a small village Gönningen in the south of Germany around 1850 but some parts take place in Odessa and in the Dutch bulb growing area. The village is famous for it's seed trading. The men and also many women of the village travel all over Europe to sell vegetable and flower seeds to farmers and estates.

It is a few days before Christmas when a young woman, the daughter of an innkeeper from Neurenberg, arrives in the village. She states that she is pregnant and the father is the son of the richest trader in town. That same son is supposed to marry the townbeauty Seraphine on the 6th of January. Seraphina whose father is missing and who grew up in poverty and who is longing for her fate to be wed to such a catch. Who has been sowing her weddingdress for months.

While at first I was all too sympathetic with Seraphine, having been dumped with heartbreak myself in my own youth, I more and more started to really dislike her. And wished that Helmut and his family grew some balls. Who would want to stand such war and then even in your own house? Why not move away when there are trading opportunities in Russia and America? She is totally obsessed and maybe crazy. What due to the two traumatic events at the start of the novel is not that far fetched..I really doubt if remorse would be able to cure that. It made me wonder if all the other familymembers were daft.

The historical background of the story was interesting. I would like to suggest to the writer to put the historical explanation at the start of the book so the readers will realise all that is more or less correct and no fantasy.

What I found difficult is that the seed woman is Hannah but large parts of the book are about the brothers and others about Seraphine. That makes it harder to identify with one person in the novel.

It was a nice surprise to see the area I live in in Holland suddenly feature in a German book mainly set in Germany. The sandy soil for the bulbs, the "helmgras" (sand reed) on the sanddunes on the seashore.

Original title in German "Die Samenhändlerin" what means the lady who trades in seeds.

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