The Heirloom Garden

The emotional scars left by war unite two women, generations apart, in Shipman’s sentimental family saga (after The Summer Cottage). The novel opens in 1944 with Iris Maynard working in a community garden in Grand Haven, Mich., where she receives news that her husband has been killed in WWII. Iris, a botanist, becomes a recluse and hides behind a high fence for six decades as she cultivates a garden with seeds and cuttings from her grandmother’s and mother’s gardens. Iris’s story alternates with one set in 2003, when 30-something Abby Peterson and her family—her young daughter, Lily, and husband, Cory, who endures PTSD from combat duty in Iraq—move next door to Iris. After Iris accepts help from Abby, and Cory helps Iris with her gardening, their friendship eases Iris’s loneliness and the tension in the couple’s marriage. When the fence dividing the neighbors’ property comes down in a storm, it is a pivotal turning point in all of their lives. An abundance of floral prose (“The daisies remind you to be happy... And the roses... oh, the roses!—they prove that beauty is always present even amongst the thorns”) is offset by poignant descriptions of the characters’ inner struggles. Shipman’s tale successfully captures these women’s resilience and their hopeful desire for new beginnings. (Apr.)