Blog tour: The Garden by Nick Newman

This post is part of a blog tour organised by Random Things Blog Tours. I received a free copy of the book in return for an honest review.

‘In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. For as long as they can remember, Evelyn and Lily have only had each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know.

‘Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother. So, when a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the centre of this new Eden, the reality of their existence is irrevocably shattered. Who is he? And where did he come from?’

In The Garden, by Nick Newman, we get to know two elderly sisters – Evelyn and Lily – whose entire world comprises their secluded garden and their kitchen-cum-living-space, blocked off from the rest of their large childhood home.

The pair are entirely self-sufficient, and the only other person they’ve seen for decades is their mother, who made their unusual living arrangements when they were children and was with them until her death, some time ago.

As far as Lily and Evelyn know, they’re the sole survivors of an extinction-level event, so they’re alarmed when a strange boy breaks in. Have there been other people out there the whole time? Are they in danger? And what do they do now?

I found The Garden absolutely gripping. Right from the start, I had so many questions: why did Lily and Evelyn’s mother feel the need to shut herself and her daughters away in the first place? Why wasn’t their father with them? What happened – if anything? Where has the boy come from?

I needed to know the answers to these questions, for my personal satisfaction as well as because of their practical and emotional implications for the characters. The women’s narrative in the “present” is interspersed with scenes from their past that give us some background on their childhood and family relationships, and gradually reveal how they came to live as they do.

There are lots of elements that give this book an eerie, spooky feel, which I loved. The sisters’ apparent alone-ness in the world, the way the bulk of their house has been left untouched by humans for half a century or more, and Evelyn’s practice of burying items around the garden’s boundary as wards are just a few things that sent a thrilling shiver down my spine.

A couple of quotes on the cover liken this novel to those of Shirley Jackson, and I concur. Like the sisters in We Have Always Lived in the Castle, elder Evelyn is practical and responsible, while younger Lily is workshy and childish. Additionally, their mother’s preparations for the end of the world put me in mind of The Sundial.

The boy, meanwhile, is more of a plot device than a fully fleshed-out character in his own right (though he’s certainly less objectionable than Charles in We Have Always Lived in the Castle). The sisters’ feelings about him change over time; it’s understandable that they’re scared of him and see him as a danger at first, but they warm to him as he proves himself to be helpful and companionable.

What the boy represents looms larger than his prosaic interactions with the pair, though. For Evelyn, who’s always faithfully and unquestioningly followed her mother’s instructions, and is happy for life to carry on as it has for so long, he’s a potential threat to everything she knows and loves. For Lily, who’s felt the constraints and hardships of their sequestered way of life more keenly, his very existence suggests there’s something new and exciting to be discovered by leaving the garden.

For both, the heartbreaking question arises of whether they’ve wasted their lives on a false premise. You’ll have to read the book yourself to find out if that’s the case, and decide how much it matters either way. One thing I can say for sure: the boy’s appearance does lead to change, and the last fifty pages of the book really put you through the emotional wringer.

The Garden is eerie, suspenseful, and emotionally devastating.