The French Gardener

By Santa Montefiore

Book Overview

A neglected garden. A cottage that holds a secret. A mysterious and handsome Frenchman. Prepare to be "spellbound by the sheer charm" (Daily Express, UK) of Santa Montefiore's tender and powerful novel about passion, loss, and the healing power of love.

It begins as Miranda and David Claybourne move into a country house with a once-beautiful garden. But reality turns out to be very different from their dream. Soon the latent unhappiness in the family begins to come to the surface, isolating each family member in a bubble of resentment and loneliness.

Then an enigmatic Frenchman arrives on their doorstep. With the wisdom of nature, he slowly begins to heal the past and the present. But who is he? When Miranda reads about his past in a diary she finds in the cottage by the garden, the whole family learns that a garden, like love itself, can restore the human spirit, not just season after season, but generation after generation.

Wise and winsome, poignant and powerfully moving, The French Gardener is a contemporary story told with an old-fashioned sensibility steeped in the importance of family and the magical power of love.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1416543740
• ISBN13: 9781416543749
• Release Date: June 2009
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Length: 432 Pages
• Weight: 0.84 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.9" x 5.3" x 8.0"

Customer Reviews

Cute

It's Cute and beautiful sometimes I couldn't stop reading it but I got a bit bored so this means not perfect for me maybe if you're 40+ I'm disappointed about the ending.

Enchanting!

A beautifully told love story of man, woman, life, children, and that there are different types of love. Strength of character never goes out of style! We all dream of having it.

Wow! Lovely Read!

I am not one to read fiction but I picked this up while on vacation. Once I started reading, I could not put it down! I love this book and I will definitely read more from this author. I was greatly impressed. Thank you!

A gentle story to touch your heart

Love is the magic that makes an abandoned garden grow and brings new life and joy to the hearts of those in despair in Santa Montefiore's novel "The French Gardener". When Miranda and David Claybourne move to the country, they are a family sliding slowly apart. The decision to bring their once=famous garden back to life, with the help of a mysteriour French gardener will reap an unexpected reward for their family and illustrates the power and magic that love can bring. This enjoyable story, rich with characters in the English countryside, is reminiscent of Rosamund Pilcher's writing and is the kind of book you want to share with a friend.

The Perfect Summer Book

Seldom does a book come a long that you can just feel your body relax and you just melt away into the story. For me, this summer, The French Gardener did just that. This book spins two tales that are brought together by a single French gardener and his story of love that could not be and a garden that hold the secret that is slowly told through a scrapbook read by a woman that has a similar story but is not the intended recipient. That may sound confusing but this gentle paced story unfolds in a way that you see the beauty but don't want the love story to come to an end. Stuck in an isolated country house Miranda has the life that she though she would like; that is until she realizes that her high fashion life and mud don't always come together. Her husband is away at work if he`s not with his mistress, her son is in constant trouble at school, she has no friends, no life, nothing but this rotten garden that was once a showplace. So what's a girl to do, she hires a French gardener to put the garden to rights and with it a story that will bind them all together in a way that they never thought possible. Montefiore creates wonderfully likeable characters each with a voice and a story of their own. You can feel the garden, the town, the people and the heartache that must be endured for there to even possibly be a happily ever after.

metaphor of life

Freelance journalist Miranda and her spouse David accompanied by their children move from London to Gloucestershire in Dorset although he still works in the big city; she dreams of writing a novel without the city distractions. As David spends increasingly more time in London and away from their home Hartington House, Miranda and the kids struggle to adjust to rustic life; she misses all the glamour and glitter of London while the kids have no earthly idea how to play outdoors when they are used to monitors. Frenchman Jean-Paul arrives searching for his lost love Ava Lightly whose family once resided in the home that David and Miranda bought. He brings with him a simpler lifestyle especially his love of gardens as he tells them how his Ava loved the feel of rich earth; his cheery optimism is infectious as the kids and Miranda enjoy their time with him as if he a kindhearted Pied Piper. This is a well written profound tale in which the garden serves as a metaphor of life. The story line is divided into the four seasons with the garden different each time as is a person through the years. This story is poignant due to the wise aging title character who flashes back to the spring of his life so that the audience learns what happened to him and his Ava. Fans will appreciate Jean Paul's wisdom as it is never too late to hug a loved one even if the person you cherish has passed; the good memories provide strong mental hugs. Harriet Klausner