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The Garden

Author Nick Newman
Hardcover
$29.00 US
Penguin Adult HC/TR | G.P. Putnam's Sons
On sale Feb 18, 2025 | 320 Pages | 9780593717738
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A darkly beautiful, eerie, hypnotic novel about two elderly sisters living alone at the edge of the world.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.

When a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they’ve known it.
“A fairy tale which gets you by the throat and doesn’t let go. The Garden is both a horror story and a meditation on love at the end of the world. It’s a testament to Newman’s extraordinary gifts that its creeping dread never overwhelms its tenderness. The cool restraint of the writing only compounds its devastating power." —Emerald Fennell, director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn

“The Garden is a gorgeous tragedy of a book, highlighting the fear of loneliness and the toll self-sufficiency can take on a family that has no other choice.” —Booklist

“[A] chilling speculative fable. . . Newman impresses with his atmospheric prose and sharp exploration of obedience and isolation. This will haunt readers long after they’ve turned the final page.” —Publishers Weekly

“Gripping yet emotionally suffocating . . . [A] stiflingly beautiful blend of the personal apocalypse of Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World with the mysterious introspection of Susan Fletcher’s The Night in Question.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“A gothic novel of weird sisters in the vein of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Nick Newman’s alluring debut twists and slithers into its own mysterious, compulsively readable shape. I loved it!” —Mason Coile, author of William

“I was enchanted by this spooky, dreamy novel. Expansive and claustrophobic in equal measure, The Garden is an eerie testament to the power of narrative to shape our reality—and the lengths we’ll go to in order to protect what we believe.” —Sara Sligar, author of Vantage Point

"Nick Newman has spun the most haunting, gripping type of apocalyptic story: one that focuses on the fragile bonds of family and the dance between trust and survival. With shades of Shirley Jackson and Susanna Clarke, The Garden is a shapeshifting fable that will stay with you long after you leave it behind." —Sara Flannery Murphy, author of The Wonder State

“Nick Newman’s The Garden is a dreamy, evocative novel that reads like a grown-up fairytale.” —Araminta Hall, author of One of the Good Guys

"The Garden is a seductive modern fairytale that glitters with menace and mystery. Newman writes beautifully about isolation, confinement and contagious fear, while tending a plot that is as tangled and twisty as Evelyn and Lily’s beloved wilderness. This is a gorgeously imagined novel about growth, retreat and the sacrifices we make to protect our beliefs—and the people we love. —Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters
© Robin Christian
Nick Newman is the adult pen-name of Nicholas Bowling, author of several children’s novels including Witchborn and In the Shadow of Heroes, which was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award. He has previously worked as a teacher, musician, and a stand-up comedian and is currently working as a bookseller at Daunt Books in London. View titles by Nick Newman

About

A darkly beautiful, eerie, hypnotic novel about two elderly sisters living alone at the edge of the world.

In a place and time unknown, two elderly sisters live in a walled garden, secluded from the outside world. Evelyn and Lily have only ever known each other. What was before the garden, they have forgotten; what lies beyond it, they do not know. Each day is spent in languid service to their home: tending the bees, planting the crops, and dutifully following the instructions of the almanac written by their mother.

When a nameless boy is found hiding in the boarded house at the center of their isolated grounds, their once-solitary lives are irrevocably disrupted. Who is he? Where did he come from? And most importantly, what does he want?

As suspicions gather and allegiances falter, Evelyn and Lily are forced to confront the dark truths about themselves, the garden, and the world as they’ve known it.

Reviews

“A fairy tale which gets you by the throat and doesn’t let go. The Garden is both a horror story and a meditation on love at the end of the world. It’s a testament to Newman’s extraordinary gifts that its creeping dread never overwhelms its tenderness. The cool restraint of the writing only compounds its devastating power." —Emerald Fennell, director of Promising Young Woman and Saltburn

“The Garden is a gorgeous tragedy of a book, highlighting the fear of loneliness and the toll self-sufficiency can take on a family that has no other choice.” —Booklist

“[A] chilling speculative fable. . . Newman impresses with his atmospheric prose and sharp exploration of obedience and isolation. This will haunt readers long after they’ve turned the final page.” —Publishers Weekly

“Gripping yet emotionally suffocating . . . [A] stiflingly beautiful blend of the personal apocalypse of Paul Tremblay’s The Cabin at the End of the World with the mysterious introspection of Susan Fletcher’s The Night in Question.” —Library Journal (starred review)

“A gothic novel of weird sisters in the vein of We Have Always Lived in the Castle, Nick Newman’s alluring debut twists and slithers into its own mysterious, compulsively readable shape. I loved it!” —Mason Coile, author of William

“I was enchanted by this spooky, dreamy novel. Expansive and claustrophobic in equal measure, The Garden is an eerie testament to the power of narrative to shape our reality—and the lengths we’ll go to in order to protect what we believe.” —Sara Sligar, author of Vantage Point

"Nick Newman has spun the most haunting, gripping type of apocalyptic story: one that focuses on the fragile bonds of family and the dance between trust and survival. With shades of Shirley Jackson and Susanna Clarke, The Garden is a shapeshifting fable that will stay with you long after you leave it behind." —Sara Flannery Murphy, author of The Wonder State

“Nick Newman’s The Garden is a dreamy, evocative novel that reads like a grown-up fairytale.” —Araminta Hall, author of One of the Good Guys

"The Garden is a seductive modern fairytale that glitters with menace and mystery. Newman writes beautifully about isolation, confinement and contagious fear, while tending a plot that is as tangled and twisty as Evelyn and Lily’s beloved wilderness. This is a gorgeously imagined novel about growth, retreat and the sacrifices we make to protect our beliefs—and the people we love. —Emma Stonex, author of The Lamplighters

Author

© Robin Christian
Nick Newman is the adult pen-name of Nicholas Bowling, author of several children’s novels including Witchborn and In the Shadow of Heroes, which was shortlisted for the Costa Children's Book Award. He has previously worked as a teacher, musician, and a stand-up comedian and is currently working as a bookseller at Daunt Books in London. View titles by Nick Newman

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