The Heirloom Garden

February 17, 2020
The emotional scars left by war unite two women, generations apart, in Shipman’s sentimental family saga (after The Summer Cottage). The novel opens in 1944 with Iris Maynard working in a community garden in Grand Haven, Mich., where she receives news that her husband has been killed in WWII. Iris, a botanist, becomes a recluse and hides behind a high fence for six decades as she cultivates a garden with seeds and cuttings from her grandmother’s and mother’s gardens. Iris’s story alternates with one set in 2003, when 30-something Abby Peterson and her family—her young daughter, Lily, and husband, Cory, who endures PTSD from combat duty in Iraq—move next door to Iris. After Iris accepts help from Abby, and Cory helps Iris with her gardening, their friendship eases Iris’s loneliness and the tension in the couple’s marriage. When the fence dividing the neighbors’ property comes down in a storm, it is a pivotal turning point in all of their lives. An abundance of floral prose (“The daisies remind you to be happy... And the roses... oh, the roses!—they prove that beauty is always present even amongst the thorns”) is offset by poignant descriptions of the characters’ inner struggles. Shipman’s tale successfully captures these women’s resilience and their hopeful desire for new beginnings.

April 15, 2020
Loss, grief, and gardening unite two women in Shipman's (The Recipe Box, 2018) heartwarming novel. In 2003, Abby Peterson relocates to Grand Haven, Michigan, with her husband Corie, an Iraq War veteran suffering from PTSD, and her young daughter, Lily. They rent a house next door to Iris Maynard, an elderly woman who has shut herself off from the world after the deaths of her husband in WWII and her daughter from polio. When Lily discovers Iris' magnificent heirloom garden behind the towering fence, Iris is drawn into Abby's problems. Abby is being harassed at her engineering job, and she is struggling with her traumatized husband while trying to make a stable home for Lily. As Abby gets to know Iris, the two women help each other to overcome their fears through their love of flowers. The garden also helps Corie and Lily to conquer their problems, and all four rediscover love, friends, and peace. The likable women and the engaging information on flowers will appeal to readers of Rhys Bowen's The Victory Garden (2019) and fans of Mary Alice Monroe and Lorna Landvik.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2020, American Library Association.)