Lost Garden

This word-perfect, heartbreaking novel is set in early 1941 in Britain when the war seems endless and, perhaps, hopeless. London is on fire from the Blitz, and a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from the burning city for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape. No one will be more changed by the stay than Gwen. She will inspire the girls to restore the estate gardens, fall in love with a soldier, find her first deep friendship, and bring a lost garden, created for a great love, back to life. While doing so, she will finally come to know herself and a life worth living. Reading group guide included.

This is a book to read again and again. —Nancy Goodwin, author of A Year in our Gardens --Nancy Goodwin

Those who, as children, loved The Secret Garden will hear its echo in The Lost Garden....[D]elicate, moving. --Rosellen Brown

"This novel...remains with the reader long after the last page is turned, and it feels like an evening walk through a pungent, private garden." Beth Kephart

A beautiful novel with substance. --Jessica Teisch

Luminous....a stunningly beautiful little gem that lingers in the memory like the heady scent of a damask rose. Jessica Teisch Bookmarks

Multi-layered in its themes with an undercurrent of wartime passion and danger...unforgettable. --Judy Gaither and Emily Gaither

Humphreys has a poet's eye, and the story is full of startling images that linger in the mind. --Lisa Michaels

A graceful, poetic novel of love and loss in England during World War II. --Lee Milazzo

A story of longing, life and death—the stuff all great gardens are made of. --Catherine Newton

Humphreys's affecting third novel never fails to couple the realistic with the ideal, the historical with the timeless. --Matthew Batt

A beautiful evocation of love and loss....Subtle and deeply affecting....Rich and satisfying.

A finely wrought novel....What brings Gwen to life and makes this novel work is Humphreys's meticulous, lucid prose. --Margot Livesey

A beautiful novel with substance. Book

WITH A HAUNTING STORY of love in a time of war, Helen Humphreys has created a novel that is both heartrending and heart-mending. London is on fire from the Blitz, and horticulturalist Gwen Davis has fled the devastated city for a ruined estate in Devon to grow crops as a volunteer with the Women's Land Army. There, for the first time, she experiences true friendship, love, and loss.

Leaving London to grow food for the war effort, Gwen discovers a mysterious lost garden and the story of a love that becomes her own.

Helen Humphreys, a poet and novelist, is the author of The Lost Garden, Afterimage, Leaving Earth, and Coventry. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.