Winter Bloom

Struggling with widowed motherhood, Eva Madigan comes across an overgrown walled garden that immediately captures her imagination. Thinking it might help her heal, she asks the owner, Myrtle Prendergast, if she can bring it back to life. But since Eva knows nothing about gardening, this is easier said than done. Hoping to find help, she solicits her Dublin community and meets Uri, an old Jewish man with a painful past; his son Seth, recovering from a failed marriage; and Emily, a young woman concealing, for the moment, her own troubles. As expected, they find common ground and a sense of healing in the garden, at least until Mrs. Prendergast's son arrives intent on selling. Heavey's newest is a by-the-numbers tale of redemption with the requisite infidelities, heartaches, and abuses, laying a less-than-fertile ground for genre readers. The metaphor of nature as a path to healing is made too obvious and the Dublin backdrop doesn't provide anything unique. Genre fans won't find much that they haven't read many times before. (Oct.)