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The Lost Garden: A Novel
 
 
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The Lost Garden: A Novel (Hardcover)

by Helen Humphreys (Author) "What can I say about love? ..." (more)
5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)

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Product details

  • Hardcover: 224 pages
  • Publisher: WW Norton & Co; 1st American Ed edition (8 Dec 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0393051838
  • ISBN-13: 978-0393051834
  • Product Dimensions: 21.5 x 14.7 x 2.1 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 1,895,885 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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Product Description

Review

A mesmeric story of love, loss and longing set in wartime England narrated by Gwen, a lonely mid-30s woman who works at the Royal Horticultural Society. She leaves London to lead a clutch of Land Girls who will grow food in the grounds of a neglected manor house in Devon. Always isolated in her life, Gwen is awkward with people - but she is befriended by a Canadian officer awaiting his posting and a frail, free-spirited girl whose fianc is missing in action. Through them and the 'lost' garden she has stumbled across, Gwen finally discovers her own profound capacity for love even though there is no happy ending. This is a beautiful, delicately fashioned novel by a leading Canadian writer and poet certain to win well-deserved plaudits from the critics. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.


The Democrat, Judy Gaither and Emily Gaither, 14 January 2003

Multi-layered in its themes with an undercurrent of wartime passion and danger...unforgettable. --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
5.0 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Discovering love, 19 Mar 2003
This review is from: The Lost Garden (Hardcover)

THE LOST GARDEN is truly a beautiful book -- straightforward and yet told with such sensitivity and understanding it's impossible not to get caught up in it. Gwen's incredibly straight view of love and life makes the poignancy all the stronger. Captain Raley's repressed fear, knowing he is just waiting to be sent out to die, had me crying by the end of the book. In fact, I cried all the way through the last chapter. Though Gwen never gets to know the land girls well (she secretly names them after potatoes), Jane and Raley and Gwen herself are excellently developed. I'm the sort of reader who thrives on constant action, yet this touching little book had me from the first word and never let go.

A brilliant portrayal of love in a time of war, THE LOST GARDEN is a literary arrangement I could not recommend more highly.

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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Sensitive and haunting, 19 Sep 2005
By Star_Sea "Xing" (Salisbury, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: The Lost Garden (Paperback)
This book is just beautiful, there is no other way to describe it. It doesn't surprise me that Humphreys is also a poet, because she always has exactly the right description, whether it be of roses or the Blitz or houses. I couldn't believe that she was Canadian, because her description of wartime London are so convincing and so beautiful. The passage which speaks of Gwen's love for London at the beginning of the book rang utterly true for my mother, who also loves the city.

Gwen herself is quite a sad character; rejected by her self-absorbed mother and ignored by men, she pours all her passion into gardening, until she meets two people thanks to the Land Girl movement: Jane and Captain Raley. Jane is recovering from a nervous breakdown, while Raley is heading towards one as he waits to be sent over to Europe. Gwen is clumsy with people, yet she reaches out to these two, and tries to help them, moved by their different yet similar distress. Intertwined with Gwen's discoveries about her two new friends is the discovery of a secret garden at the house where the girls are staying. It is not included in the house plans and Gwen embarks on a quest to find out who planted it and why. There is also a mysterious ghost who steals chickens, which gives necessary light relief to a story that deals with intense issues. The lucid language clearly evokes Gwen's feelings and memories, but Humphreys never allows the story to be bogged down. Her eye for detail is amazing. I intend to buy her other books and read them, and there's no better compliment.

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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Love, longing and loss in time of war, 25 Feb 2007
By aphra (Herts UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lost Garden (Paperback)
The Lost Garden is a beautiful evocation of time and place, longing and loss. This is a very well-crafted and moving novel. The images and emotions brought to life by Helen Humphrey's book stayed with me long after I had finished reading it. Both witty and haunting this book is a real gem.
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