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"As lush and inviting as the gardens created by its heroine, this novel...will wrap you in captivating, high-stakes drama."-People Magazine (Best Books Summer 2023)"A great portion of [Hedge's] magic lies in how it turns a radical corner, gaining speed and burning urgency-then slowly becoming something else: deeper, denser, wiser. Readers will (and should) trust it to take us where we need to go-even if not where we expected."-The Washington PostFeatured in Oprah Daily's Spring 2023 Reading List and Kirkus ReviewsAn emotionally charged, richly observed novel about a woman balancing the demands of motherhood and marriage with her own needs.Maud is a talented garden historian and devoted mother to daughters Ella and Louise. Motivated to reinvigorate her career and escape her troubled marriage, she accepts a summer job restoring the garden of a lush, nineteenth-century Hudson Valley estate.
While waiting for her daughters to join her at the end of their school year, Maud meets coworker and archaeologist Gabriel Crews, whose passion for landscape history matches her own. When their immediate and intense friendship ignites, it sets in motion a seismic shock that will profoundly change Maud's life, as well as the lives of everyone she cares about.
About the author
Jane Delury won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her first novel,
The Balcony. Her short stories have appeared in
Granta,
The Yale Review, and
The PEN/O. Henry Prize Stories, among other publications. A professor of creative writing at the University of Baltimore, she lives in Maryland with her family.
Summary
“As lush and inviting as the gardens created by its heroine, this novel…will wrap you in captivating, high-stakes drama.”—People Magazine (Best Books Summer 2023)
“A great portion of [Hedge’s] magic lies in how it turns a radical corner, gaining speed and burning urgency—then slowly becoming something else: deeper, denser, wiser. Readers will (and should) trust it to take us where we need to go—even if not where we expected.”―The Washington Post
Featured in Oprah Daily’s Spring 2023 Reading List and Kirkus Reviews
An emotionally charged, richly observed novel about a woman balancing the demands of motherhood and marriage with her own needs.
Maud is a talented garden historian and devoted mom to daughters Ella and Louise. Motivated to reignite her career and escape her troubled marriage, she accepts a summer job restoring the garden of a lush, 19th-century estate in the Hudson Valley.
Reveling in her work and temporary independence, Maud relishes her days in the sun. While waiting for her daughters to join her at the end of their school year, she strikes up a friendship with a coworker, archeologist Gabriel Crews. As the two share nightly dinners, their relationship grows more intimate, and Maud starts to imagine a future outside of her stifling marriage. Once Ella and Louise arrive, however, she is torn by her desire for Gabriel, her obligations to her daughters, and her growing concern for Ella’s dark moods. Is Ella acting out because she senses that Maud and Gabriel have fallen in love?
What happens next is a seismic shock that profoundly changes Maud's life, as well as the lives of everyone she cares about.
Deeply moving and impossible to put down, Hedge is an unforgettable portrait of a woman’s longing to be a good mother while still answering the call of her soul and mind.
