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The Gardener

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The Gardener

By: Salley Vickers
Narrated by: Salley Vickers
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About this listen

Brought to you by Penguin.

The new novel from Salley Vickers, Sunday Times best-selling author of The Librarian.

Artist, Hassie Day and her sister, Margot, buy a rambling, run-down Jacobean house in Hope Wenlock on the Welsh Marches. While Margot continues her London life in high finance, Hassie is left alone to work the large, long-neglected garden. She is befriended by eccentric, sharp-tongued Miss Foot, who recommends Murat, an Albanian migrant, out of place in the village, to help Hassie in the garden.

As Hassie works in the garden alongside Murat, she begins to ruminate on her past life, her hostile mother, her diffident father and the sibling rivalry that tainted her childhood. Most of all, she begins to analyse the love affair that ended leaving her with painful, unanswered questions.

In Murat's peaceful company, she discovers resemblances between her plight and his, and as she works the garden and walks in the mysterious ancient nearby wood, she begins to explore the history of the house and its former lands, and old hurts fade as she experiences the healing power of nature and learns of other, hidden worlds.

In her mesmerising new book Salley Vickers, the best-selling author of The Librarian and The Cleaner of Chartres, writes with the profound psychological insight and sense of the numinous power of place that is the hallmark of all her novels.

©2021 Salley Vickers (P)2021 Penguin Audio
Contemporary Fiction Family Life Fiction Genre Fiction Literary Fiction

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Critic reviews

"Salley Vickers sees with a clear eye and writes with a light hand. She's a presence worth cherishing." (Philip Pullman)

All stars
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Hassie and her sister Margot are restoring their old family home on the Welsh Marshes, My headline isn't flattering.

There's a great deal to praise in Salley Vickers' new novel. Hassie's love affair with a married man and its aftermath is delicate and moving; the healing powers of the garden which she and the Albanian immigrant Murat restore are beautifully detailed; the descriptions of nature, trees, flowers, sky, colours, water and streams are tender and keenly observed; her childhood with her unpleasant mother, sibling rivalry and loving father is also vivid and real.

All well and good, so why am I disappointed? What spoiled it for me was the heavy-handed morality tale surrounding both Murat and the apparently feral and vicious little local girl. I felt there was an element of preaching which I resented. As for the sudden change of gear into mystical mystery almost at the very end: it totally lost me.

The author isn't always the best choice for a narrator, but Salley Vickers makes for pleasant listening.

a mystical morality tale

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Interesting exploration of abandonment, loneliness and finding yourself. A gentle story with fulsome characters. Love the writers voice.

LovedThis. Slightly mystical no over explaining

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I loved Salley Vickers' voice. This is a truly beautiful story, elegantly told. I want to return to the beginning and enjoy it all over again!

the gardener

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I can recommend this story. I am a fan of S V and enjoyed her narration.

Fabulous

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A real page turner to begin with before the plot appears to lose a certain je ne se quoi. Beautiful descriptions, steeped in a dust of magic. Ending was frustratingly confusing rather than ambiguous.

Pleasant Read

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