Forget Me Nots is a sweeping yet intimate family saga spanning two generations of the Fuchs family—an enduring story of love, resilience, and the quiet strength that carries ordinary people through extraordinary times.

​

The novel begins in the late 19th century with Mathilde and Michael Fuchs, a glassblower and his steadfast wife in the Bohemian village of Annathal. Their lives, rooted in tradition and illuminated by small joys—hand-painted vases, church festivals, the rhythm of work—form the foundation of a close-knit family. Through economic hardship, shifting borders, and the upheaval of World War I, they remain an unshakable center, their love a steady flame in a darkening world.

 

A generation later, their son Andreas steps into the elegant world of Karlsbad’s grand hotels. There he meets Anna Stingl, a young woman who has survived a hard, loveless upbringing marked by her mother’s cruelty and the burden of caring for her younger sisters. Her world consists of long hours in her father’s bakery and brief moments of beauty in a secret garden of roses and pressed forget-me-nots.

When Anna dares to leave home, a single pressed forget-me-not—tucked into a letter of application—leads her unexpectedly into Andreas’ path. What follows is a tender, slowly unfolding love: jasmine-scented evenings, exchanged letters, shy beginnings, and a Christmas proposal under falling snow. Their marriage, symbolized by a porcelain figure of two horses running side by side, survives war, displacement, and the long journey to America.

 

Across decades and continents, Forget Me Not traces the intertwined destinies of two families who endure every storm with determination, humor, and love. It is a novel about memory, the small rituals that shape us, and the promise—fragile yet unbreakable—that those we love are never truly lost.