The Origin Tree

A mother's desperate choice during Ethiopia's Red Terror sends her infant daughter across an ocean and into another life entirely. Tigist Bekele, guardian of ancient coffee trees in the Kaffa highlands, spends nearly four decades believing her child is alive somewhere beyond reach. Almaz Rossi, raised in Rome by the nun who rescued her, grows up brilliant and restless, haunted by a heritage she cannot name. When a mysterious coffee sample with an impossible genetic lineage surfaces in a European laboratory, the trail leads back to a steep hillside farm—and the woman whose silver cross matches the one in Almaz's only baby photograph. Their reunion will test whether love can bridge decades of silence, and whether origin is something you inherit or something you must choose to reclaim.