This authors debut with The Reading List was so brilliant that I was really looking forward to this book. I was not disappointed, even if I was not quite as taken with this book as I was with the first.
There is a similarity between the two books and plots. The first was about a young person and an older person finding friendship and a fair amount of joy through reading and the local library. This plot is all about people coming together through gardening.
Neighbours Winston and Bernice don't get off to the best of starts. They have a shared garden and, until Bernice's sudden arrival with her son, Winston had the garden to himself, even if he didn't do much more than sit in it. All of a sudden, he has a bossy neighbour. Coming from very different lifestyles, Bernice in particular makes some unfair assumptions and both react with rather poor attitudes.
Then some pictures and leaflets arrive through Winston's door, telling him a bit about what the garden used to be like and who lived in the houses. Winston is inspired to start gardening, finding it a welcome distraction from his problems and the perfect therapy he needs, whilst also creating a connection to his past.
Bernice also starts getting pictures and, slowly, realises she has greatly misjudged Winston when her young son, Sebastian, makes friends with Winston and they begin to bond over the garden. Bernice, who bought the house precisely for the purpose of having a garden, also starts to get stuck in.
It isn't the easiest of relationships, but together they can create something pretty special and a good friendship.
Every other chapter also tells a story from the past about Maya, who lived in one of the houses with her family, and the relationship with her neighbour Alma, who has a passion for the garden. During Alma's time, people from the community were always coming and going in the garden either to simply spend time there, or to help out. But what happened to them and to the garden? Who is sending the pictures to Winston and Bernice?
There is a slight line about people from different cultures sometimes struggling to settle down into another country and feeling that prejudice is everywhere they go. The author has mixed Indian and English heritage so it is not surprising that different cultures would feature in her books and I have actually learnt a little from both her books.
I enjoyed this book. Even if it didn't captivate quite the way The Reading List did, it still held my attention and warmed my heart a little. Using gardens as a bonding point this time, instead of books.
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