As she works the garden in Murat's peaceful company, Hassie ruminates on her past life: the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood and the love affair that left her with painful, unanswered questions. But as she begins to explore the history of the house and the mysterious nearby wood, old hurts begin to fade as she experiences the healing power of nature and discovers other worlds. There are several “gardeners” in this novel of pruning, engrafting, and self-growth: “I tried to wrench my life round into a new pattern,” Hassie says. She succeeds both naturally and supernaturally in a novel that notices the possibilities of healing among the fragilities of life.

Salley Vickers (Author of The Librarian) - Goodreads Salley Vickers (Author of The Librarian) - Goodreads

The narrator speaks honestly and openly to herself about her physical and emotional feelings. We witness her growing self-awareness and fulfilment, through her garden — “my small private paradise which I felt honoured to share with the birds” — and through her connectedness with landscape, trees, animals, a snail, the weather, and through her many literary recollections, including Emily Brontë, T. S. Eliot, Hardy, Hopkins, Beatrix Potter, Shakespeare, and Wordsworth. And that leisurely growth is forever stunted – even a power out, or blown fuse, or whatever it is that afflicts the house before it's shipshape, is just mentioned and then ignored. But then, when the same applies to the greater things, those that might have actually provided a plot, you see all that is wrong about this mish-mash. The decorating, as dull as it was? Incomplete, forgotten, ignored. Likewise with the garden. Ditto with the history of the house Hass gets wrapped up in. No, there is some semblance of a story as regards Hass settling down, and some indication of a kind of fairy legacy regarding the building and its environs, but nothing that ever gels into the form of a decent story. The house is set in an extensive but overgrown garden in need of repair. It’s a job too big for one person, so Hassie hires an Albanian migrant who has broken up with his English wife to help her. Although neither of them has any horticultural knowledge, they work together to weed the overgrown garden beds, mow the lawns, repair broken trellises and plant new plants. Hassie is keen to integrate herself into village life and makes friends with the elderly and opinionated Phyllis Foot and also the recently widowed vicar Peter, also getting involved in the life of a young child called Penny who often hangs around the home.As she works the garden in Murat's peaceful company, Hassie ruminates on her past life: the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood and the love affair that left her with painful, unanswered questions. It is books like this that make me wonder why I don't read more outside the crime fiction genre. Too much inside the genre competing for my attention I suppose. Much of the novel charts Hassie’s attempts to ingratiate herself with the locals, which include the outspoken and cantankerous retired schoolmarm, Miss Foot, and the friendly local vicar, a widower, who claims not to believe in God. In Partnership with St Martin-in-the-Fields. This series of nine lectures is inspired by the words of Martin Luther during the Reformation. Distinguished speakers investigate those things in which we believe deeply – and for which we would be prepared to make a costly stand.

The Gardener by Salley Vickers - Penguin Books Australia The Gardener by Salley Vickers - Penguin Books Australia

In the ‘sprawling’ house, Hassie is left alone to tend the ‘large, long-neglected garden’. Finding it rather a large task, she asks for the help of Murat, an Albanian refugee, who has largely been ‘made to feel out of place amongst the locals’. This to me was a reminder that sometimes you just need to read books that explore relationships, rather than always solving murder mysteries. There are mysteries in THE GARDENER but they are not the primary focus. the descriptions of the garden were divine. they were easily the best part of the novel and i would‘ve enjoyed The Gardener more if it had actually focused on the Gardener part more. i don’t care that much about your lost lover! i want to know about the kingfisher and the flowers in your garden! Our narrator, Hassie Days (it is revealed) is writing to her unborn child and the father has got to be Murat, the Albanian gardener with the beautiful white teeth and dazzling smile. Remember that night when Hassie went to look for the lost kitten and was full of sorrow? She saw a figure which ‘began to move slowly towards’ her. It was Murat who had been living in the woods. She refers to this in the denouement, confirmation to readers and, I thought, subtle and moving.Hassie plans to live there permanently, but Margot, who has a job in the city, will simply visit on weekends or stay over when she needs a respite from London life. I loved this book at the beginning. It's a beautiful format, lovely William Morris endpapers and it starts off with such promise.