In Our Strange Gardens (English and French Edition) [Paperback]

Michel Quint (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 4, 2001

Michel has a story to tell. It's about his father, an exquisitely common man whose very ordinariness is a source of grave embarrassment for the boy. It's also the story told to him by his uncle, who shared a family secret with the child in the flickering black and white images of a Sunday matinee. Years before, in the bitter years of World War II, during the Nazi occupation of France, two brothers found themselves at the mercy of a German guard following an explosive act of resistance. Thrown into a deep pit with a small group of terrified prisoners, the men are told that one of them will die by dawn to serve as an example for the others. It's up to the prisoners to propose who will be sacrificed. But in the middle of the night, the guard returns with an extraordinary proposition of his own. A novel of revelation, innocence and ignorance, of the power of language and the strength and complexity of family, In Our Strange Gardens is a fable of nuance and power, a mesmerizing addition to the literature of war.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Given the events of the last two months, Quint's odd little parable about the often transitory and unpredictable nature of good and evil in wartime situations seems especially poignant and compelling. The premise of the story is simple: the son of a Resistance hero tells the story of his father and his father's cousin, a pair of Frenchmen who blow up the local generator during WWII and then find themselves taken into custody by the Germans as random hostages; no one realizes they are the true culprits. The Nazis throw them into a pit with a pair of their innocent comrades and tell them that one of them will be killed unless someone confesses to the crime. Their strange dilemma is rendered even more bizarre by the behavior of the guard, who alternately taunts them and gives them scraps of food as they struggle to determine a course of action. Quint renders his narrative in a deceptively simple and straightforward fashion, making no attempt to judge the actions of his protagonists. The solution to their dilemma is an intriguing surprise, but Quint delivers the real knockout punch to his little morality play in his revelation of the fate of the narrator; readers won't forget it. (Dec. 4)Forecast: This extremely short book Quint's tale is really a long short story is bulked up by the inclusion of the entire French text. As an international bestseller, the book has a proven track record, but readers on these shores may balk at the cost-content ratio.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal

Quint's slip of a first novel, hugely acclaimed in Europe, returns us to a favorite stomping ground of the literary landscape World War II. Although not uncharted terrain, this horrifying chapter in human history is brilliantly evoked, told unflinchingly by a young man, Michel, and his father's aging cousin, Gaston, who together reconstruct the extraordinary wartime experience of the boy's father and Gaston himself. Captured by the Nazis and thrown into a pit under suspicion of resistance, the four men (Gaston, Michel's father, and two others) must choose who will be sacrificed to save the other three. What ensues is a complex and savagely humorous account of the nature of war, memory, and the human spirit, betrayed by none of the sentimentality that has plagued so many other attempts to grapple with the same material. The translation has been poetically rather than faithfully rendered by Bray, though some choices are puzzling: the book's French title, Effroyables Jardins, has been translated as In Our Strange Gardens; the English word strange doesn't quite capture the nuance of effroyable, something both strange and terrifying. Nevertheless, this is a valuable addition to the body of war literature. Tania Barnes, "Library Journal"

Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 176 pages
• Publisher: Riverhead Trade; Bilingual edition (December 4, 2001)
• Language: English, French
• ISBN-10: 1573229164
• ISBN-13: 978-1573229166
• Product Dimensions: 7.1 x 5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (15 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #327,125 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Delightful Surprise, November 7, 2004

By 

R. Chaffey "beckahi" (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: In Our Strange Gardens (English and French Edition) (Paperback)

I wasn't sure what to expect when reading "In Our Strange Gardens". It has the depth of a large work of fiction, but is intricately told in a short amount of pages. Michel Quint crafts his story through flashback, demonstrating the powerful role memory plays in shaping our lives.

"In Our Strange Gardens" is the recollection of the author - the memory of his family and the secrets that shape the lives of his father and his uncle. During World War II, his father and uncle were held prisoners and forced to make terrifying decisions that would affect their lives as well as the lives of others. Quint's characters are vividly drawn, brief and poignant character studies that examine the true nature of all human beings.

The story surprisingly comes full circle, as the author learns the truth behind his father's life, and that of his uncle's. Once I was finished reading, I was tempted to start over again to see where this circle had all begun. It is a tender and sweet memorial to the ties that bind us to family and the decisions that shape our lives.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a MUST read, December 11, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: In Our Strange Gardens (English and French Edition) (Paperback)

I rushed to read this book after seeing a rave review in the NYT, and my God, I wasn't disappointed. Its deceiving simplicity, its humanity, its bitter-sweet humor, it's the kind of book you read in one go, and want to share with others... Short, intense but with a lingering resonnance... If you enjoyed books like Bernard Schlink's The Reader, you'll love this!!!

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Phenomenal!, October 29, 2004

By 

JMack (Chicago) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: In Our Strange Gardens (English and French Edition) (Paperback)

Some stories are so well written that they are one of those books that make you lie awake at night pondering. These are the books you tell your friends that they have to read. "In Our Strange Gardens" is one of those books. Having family members who survived the Nazi atrocities of World War II, this book really hit home for me.

Although only 80 pages long (unless you read the French translation too), the story is very thorough. A story does not have to be long to be good! The main character, Michel tells the story as told to him by his father's cousin, Gaston. Michel's father, Gaston, and two other men are blamed in an act of sabotage against the Nazis. From a historical perspective, people do not usually survive once they are accused by the Nazis. The story of survival gives Michael's father and Gaston a new perspective on life. It also changed the foolish light Michel saw his father in.

Few books attain the status of international bestseller. There is a reason this one did. It is that good.