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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 bestselling author of The Librarian

Artist, Hassie Days, and her sister, Margot, buy a 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, made to feel out of place among the locals, to help Hassie in the garden.

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.

In her haunting new novel, Salley Vickers, the bestselling 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.

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

© Salley Vickers 2021 (P) Penguin Audio 2021

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)
Vickers writes of relationships with undaunted clarity (Adam Phillips)
Heart-warming, beautifully written and moving
No one can dig down into the shrouded recesses of the human heart quite as forensically as Vickers
All stars
Most relevant
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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