From Publishers Weekly
Evocative, if occasionally clunky, Humphreys's third novel (following Afterimage) is the story of an Englishwoman's search for her place in a world permeated by war. The narrator, 35-year-old Gwen Davis, is a horticulturist who flees bombed-out WWII London to manage a team of "land girls"-women who grow vegetables as part of the war effort-at a country estate. She struggles to manage her wayward charges, who are more interested in the Canadian soldiers billeted in the main house than in cultivating potatoes, and writes letters in her head to her idol Virginia Woolf, whose recent death has left her feeling bereft. She also tries to seduce the world-weary, hard-drinking Captain Raley, who has a secret of his own that dooms their relationship. Though her conflicts pale next to those of the soldiers waiting to be posted to battle and even those of her new friend, Jane, whose cousin is a casualty of war and whose fiance is missing in action, it is Gwen's quiet self-discovery that is at the center of the novel. Humphreys renders convincingly her first, fleeting experience of deep friendship and love. Unfortunately, the story is sometimes marred by overwrought or cloying prose, though Humphreys's language also has its moments of elegance (during the blitz, "houses become holes. Solids become spaces. Anything can disappear overnight"). Humphreys doesn't quite have the narrative energy of Pat Barker and Jane Gardam, but fans of those authors may enjoy this exploration of the impact of WWII on English life.Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Booklist
*Starred Review* England in 1941 is the setting for this beautifully crafted and bittersweet coming-of-age story, where maturity means a stoic acceptance of the constant presence of death and the sadness of unfulfilled loves. Gwen Davis gladly leaves London amid the burning wreckage left by the German bombings on the same day that Virginia Woolf (to whom Gwen writes letters that she never sends) is pronounced missing, presumed drowned. Gwen has given up her job at the Royal Horticultural Society to volunteer as a captain in the Women's Land Army in Devon. She will supervise a small group of young women whose task is to raise food for the war effort. Awkward with people and inexperienced with men, Gwen initially finds the nonagricultural aspects of her new job beyond her. Gradually she becomes friends with one of the young women (she names the rest after various species of potatoes) and falls in love with the Canadian officer billeted with his men in the adjoining estate. Canadian Humphreys, author of two award-winning novels (most recently Afterimage, 2001), writes with a poetic sensibility, positing that even in the midst of despair, the land (and the heart) renews itself. Nancy Pearl
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved


Morning Star-Telegram, Catherine Newton, 12 July 2003
A story of longing, life and death—the stuff all great gardens are made of.


The Democrat, Judy Gaither and Emily Gaither, 14 January 2003
Multi-layered in its themes with an undercurrent of wartime passion and danger...unforgettable.


Lisa Michaels
Humphreys has a poet's eye, and the story is full of startling images that linger in the mind.


Nancy Goodwin, author of A Year in our Gardens
This is a book to read again and again.


Rosellen Brown
Those who, as children, loved The Secret Garden will hear its echo in The Lost Garden....[D]elicate, moving .


Matthew Batt, San Francisco Chronicle
Humphreys's affecting third novel never fails to couple the realistic with the ideal, the historical with the timeless.


Margot Livesey, New York Times Book Review
A finely wrought novel....What brings Gwen to life and makes this novel work is Humphreys's meticulous, lucid prose.


Minneapolis Star-Tribune
A beautiful evocation of love and loss....Subtle and deeply affecting....Rich and satisfying.


Bookmarks, Jessica Teisch, 1 April 2003
A beautiful novel with substance.


Dallas Morning News, Lee Milazzo, 23 March 2003
A graceful, poetic novel of love and loss in England during World War II.


Book Description
Leaving London to grow food for the war effort, Gwen discovers a mysterious lost garden and the story of a love that becomes her own. This word-perfect, heartbreaking novel is set in early 1941 in Britain when the war seems endless and, perhaps, hopeless. London is on fire from the Blitz, and a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from the burning city for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape. No one will be more changed by the stay than Gwen. She will inspire the girls to restore the estate gardens, fall in love with a soldier, find her first deep friendship, and bring a lost garden, created for a great love, back to life. While doing so, she will finally come to know herself and a life worth living. Reading group guide included.


About the Author
Helen Humphreys is the author of Afterimage and Leaving Earth, both chosen as Notable Books by the New York Times. She lives in Kingston, Ontario.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Leaving London to grow food for the war effort, Gwen discovers a mysterious lost garden and the story of a love that becomes her own.This word-perfect, heartbreaking novel is set in early 1941 in Britain when the war seems endless and, perhaps, hopeless. London is on fire from the Blitz, and a young woman gardener named Gwen Davis flees from the burning city for the Devon countryside. She has volunteered for the Land Army, and is to be in charge of a group of young girls who will be trained to plant food crops on an old country estate where the gardens have fallen into ruin. Also on the estate, waiting to be posted, is a regiment of Canadian soldiers. For three months, the young women and men will form attachments, living in a temporary rural escape. No one will be more changed by the stay than Gwen. She will inspire the girls to restore the estate gardens, fall in love with a soldier, find her first deep friendship, and bring a lost garden, created for a great love, back to life. While doing so, she will finally come to know herself and a life worth living. Reading group guide included.