The French Gardener: A Novel [Bargain Price] [Paperback]

Santa Montefiore (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 2, 2009

A neglected garden. A cottage that holds a secret. A mysterious Frenchman (handsome, naturally). A family in need of some love. These elements are entwined in this heartwarming novel by the author reviewers consistently compare to Maeve Binchy and Rosamunde Pilcher.

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.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Montefiore's well-crafted, evocative novel is instantly sensual and welcoming. When Miranda Claybourne's seven-year-old is expelled from school, the stylish Londoner, magazine writer and mother of two, ditches her posh Notting Hill digs for the idylls of a country estate. But her simple-life fantasies soon fail. Her husband's preoccupied with his job and his mistress; the kids lash out at each other while Gus, the elder, terrorizes both farm animals and his new classmates. Enter Jean-Paul, a handsome, mysterious Frenchman with an offer to tend her woefully neglected gardens. Cleaning out the estate's rundown cottage for Jean-Paul, she discovers the secret journals of the previous lady of the house—a brilliant gardener, Ava Lightly, and her love affair. As if by magic, Miranda's garden begins to thrive and she owes it all to Jean-Paul, with whom she thinks she's falling in love. The drama of the journals distract from her own failing marriage, and Miranda delights in the idea that her life is running parallel to Ava's—it's a lovely coincidence, until she stops to consider exactly what may have drawn Jean-Paul into her garden. (June)
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From Booklist

A rambling country estate may have lured Miranda and David and their children from their elegant London lifestyle, but not even the enchantment of once magnificent gardens, or fascination with an abandoned cottage can mend the emotional and physical chasm that is deepening between them. Left alone while David returns to London during the week, Miranda is overwhelmed by establishing a new home, disciplining an unruly child, and maintaining her own career. Her prayers are seemingly answered when a charismatic Frenchman suddenly appears with an offer to restore the gardens to their former glory. As the friendship between Miranda and Jean-Paul grows, so do her suspicions about David’s fidelity, leading Miranda to seek refuge in an abandoned diary that details a passionate tryst between the estate’s former owner, Ava, and her intriguingly unnamed gardener. Despite the obvious D. H. Lawrence overtones, Montefiore crafts a sweetly provocative romance that transitions seamlessly from Miranda’s contemporary marital discord to Ava’s past affair. --Carol Haggas

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Touchstone; Original edition (June 2, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416543740
• ASIN: B003A02WKI
• Product Dimensions: 8 x 5.2 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 13.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (23 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #159,272 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

I was born in England in 1970. My father is a farmer. When I was born he had grown a very successful crop of winter barley called Senter barley, so he suggested they name me Senter in celebration. My mother is Anglo Argentine and naturally thought it a terrible idea, so suggested Santa, which means saint in Spanish. Growing up I wanted to be called Jane. There isn't a joke I haven't heard. Now I rather like it, combined with my husband's name Montefiore, which means mountain flower in Italian, I think it's rather colourful. I always wanted to be a writer. There has never been a time when I haven't written. I spent a year in Argentina when I was nineteen and that changed my life in so many ways. I loved who I was when I was there. Speaking another language, not being boxed by class as we are in England, being free to be the person I chose rather than being dictated to by expectation. I fell in love with the pampa, the flat, fertile plains, the smells of gardenia and eucalyptus, the expressive, passionate people I met there. I wrote my first novel Meet Me Under The Ombu Tree, inspired by the country I had fallen in love with. My first four novels are based in Latin America. They're not sold in the USA yet. Here's hoping! My other four are published by Simon & Schuster. I live in London with my husband, the historian and novelist Simon Sebag-Montefiore, and our two children, Lily and Sasha.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Perfect Summer Book, July 3, 2009

By 

Nancy Grisso "Stepfordmomto2" (Tehachapi, CA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: The French Gardener: A Novel (Paperback)

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.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars metaphor of life, June 7, 2009

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The French Gardener: A Novel (Paperback)

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

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A gentle story to touch your heart, July 17, 2009

By 

Susan Weber "booklover" (Grayslake, IL United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The French Gardener: A Novel (Paperback)

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.