The Sea Garden: A Novel

Brief Description: Romance, suspense, and World War II mystery are woven together in three artfully linked novellas rich in drama and steeped in atmosphere from the critically acclaimed author of The Lantern. The Sea GardenOn the lush Mediterranean island of Porquerolles off the French coast, Ellie Brooke, an award-winning British landscape designer, has been hired to restore a memorial garden. Unsettled by its haunted air and the bitterness of the garden s owner, an elderly woman who seems intent on undermining her, Ellie finds that her only ally on the island is an elusive war historian. . . . The Lavender FieldNear the end of World War II, Marthe Lincel, a young blind woman newly apprenticed at a perfume factory in Nazi-occupied Provence, finds herself at the center of a Resistance cell. When tragedy strikes, she faces the most difficult choice of her life . . . and discovers a breathtaking courage she never expected. A Shadow LifeIris Nightingale, a junior British intelligence officer in wartime London, falls for a French agent. But after a secret landing in Provence results in terrible Nazi reprisals, he vanishes. When France is liberated, Iris is determined to uncover the truth. Was he the man he claimed to be?Ingeniously interconnected, this spellbinding triptych weaves three parallel narratives into one unique tale of love, mystery, and murder. The Sea Garden is a vivid and absorbing chronicle of love and loss in the fog of war and a penetrating and perceptive examination of the impulses and circumstances that shape our lives."Review Quotes: Spellbinding sumptuous. --"Publishers Weekly""Review Quotes: Sensuous . Lawrenson s poetic prose vibrantly conjures up both the beauty of southern France and the ghosts, real or imagined, from different eras. --"Entertainment Weekly" on "The Lantern""Review Quotes: "Lawrenson writes compassionately and convincingly of the war's horrors and the ways in which ordinary people become heroes, continuously building the tension toward a never-saw-it-coming convergence of the trio of tales."--"Entertainment Weekly"Review Quotes: "Spellbinding...sumptuous."--"Publishers Weekly"Review Quotes: ""The Sea Garden" weaves a double spell: Lawrenson steeps her story of the invisible heroes of the French Resistance crossing borders-and here, crossing time-deep in the eerie beauty of the South of France. The result is a marvelous strange fruit: think Graham Greene with a dash of Poe."--Sarah Blake, author of "The Postmistress"Review Quotes: "Sensuous.... Lawrenson's poetic prose vibrantly conjures up both the beauty of southern France and the ghosts, real or imagined, from different eras."--"Entertainment Weekly" on "The Lantern"Review Quotes: "Deborah Lawrenson's writing is delicious. Her stories are atmospheric, intoxicating and impossible not to get lost in."--Sarah Jio, author of "Goodnight June" and "Blackberry Winter"Review Quotes: Lawrenson writes compassionately and convincingly of the war s horrors and the ways in which ordinary people become heroes, continuously building the tension toward a never-saw-it-coming convergence of the trio of tales. --"Entertainment Weekly""Review Quotes: "The Sea Garden" weaves a double spell: Lawrenson steeps her story of the invisible heroes of the French Resistance crossing borders-and here, crossing time-deep in the eerie beauty of the South of France. The result is a marvelous strange fruit: think Graham Greene with a dash of Poe. --Sarah Blake, author of "The Postmistress""Review Quotes: Deborah Lawrenson s writing is delicious. Her stories are atmospheric, intoxicating and impossible not to get lost in. --Sarah Jio, author of "Goodnight June" and "Blackberry Winter"" Review Citations:

Publishers Weekly 05/05/2014 pg. 39 (EAN 9780062357335, Paperback)

Library Journal Prepub Alert 02/15/2014 pg. 70 (EAN 9780062279668, Hardcover)

Publishers Weekly 05/05/2014 (EAN 9780062279668, Hardcover)

Kirkus Reviews 06/01/2014 (EAN 9780062279668, Hardcover)

Entertainment Weekly 07/11/2014 pg. 73 (EAN 9780062279668, Hardcover)

Contributor Bio:  Lawrenson, Deborah Deborah Lawrenson studied English at Cambridge University and worked as a journalist in London. She and her family spend as much time as possible at a crumbling hamlet in Provence, France, the setting for her novel The Lantern and inspiration for The Sea Garden.