The Lost Garden: A Novel - Hardcover

Humphreys, Helen

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0393051838 ISBN 13: 9780393051834

Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc, 2002

Synopsis

Leaving war-stricken London in 1941, Gwen Davis volunteers for the Land Army in the Devon countryside where she oversees a group of girls who plant crops for the war effort beside a regiment of Canadian soldiers. 17,000 first printing.

About this title

About the Author:

Helen Humphreys is the author of Afterimage and Leaving Earth, both chosen as Notable Books of the New York Times. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

From Publishers Weekly:

Evocative, if occasionally clunky, Humphreys's third novel (following Afterimage) is the story of an Englishwoman's search for her place in a world permeated by war. The narrator, 35-year-old Gwen Davis, is a horticulturist who flees bombed-out WWII London to manage a team of "land girls"-women who grow vegetables as part of the war effort-at a country estate. She struggles to manage her wayward charges, who are more interested in the Canadian soldiers billeted in the main house than in cultivating potatoes, and writes letters in her head to her idol Virginia Woolf, whose recent death has left her feeling bereft. She also tries to seduce the world-weary, hard-drinking Captain Raley, who has a secret of his own that dooms their relationship. Though her conflicts pale next to those of the soldiers waiting to be posted to battle and even those of her new friend, Jane, whose cousin is a casualty of war and whose fiance is missing in action, it is Gwen's quiet self-discovery that is at the center of the novel. Humphreys renders convincingly her first, fleeting experience of deep friendship and love. Unfortunately, the story is sometimes marred by overwrought or cloying prose, though Humphreys's language also has its moments of elegance (during the blitz, "houses become holes. Solids become spaces. Anything can disappear overnight"). Humphreys doesn't quite have the narrative energy of Pat Barker and Jane Gardam, but fans of those authors may enjoy this exploration of the impact of WWII on English life.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

About this edition

• Publisher: W W Norton & Co Inc
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0393051838
• ISBN 13: 9780393051834
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 224