Rose's Garden

In the four months since Conrad Morrisey's beloved wife, Rose, died, he has let her cherished garden slide into neglect, just as he has stopped caring what he eats or wears. But there, in Rose's overgrown and unkempt garden, Conrad receives an unearthly visitor, familiar yet perplexing. What does this mean? What should he do? What would vivacious Rose have done?She would not have kept it a secret, Conrad decides, so he begins to share his story. And suddenly he finds himself at the center of Rose's life in a way he'd never experienced, learning how she touched the lives of people he barely knew. These people, from a silent, damaged young woman to the twittering ladies of Rose's drama group, shape his own days as they make unlikely pilgrimages to the garden. Conrad had thought his life was over, but something vital has yet to happen, on the wings of Rose's last message of love.Incandescent, quirky, and poignant, Rose's Garden is an unforgettable story of undying love.From Publishers WeeklyWhen Conrad Morrissey's wife, Rose, dies after 50 years of marriage, it takes an angelic visit to save him from his grief. That is the familiar premise of Brown's sweet, gentle first novel, set in the small town of Laurel, N.H. Once the ghost of his dead father-in-law prompts Conrad to concern himself with the living instead of the dead, he discovers that Rose's mysterious friend Hero, a slightly retarded girl with whom she shared a love of gardening, has also been receiving instruction from the dead. "And what had it been to Hero? He could not guess, except to believe that her world had always been filled with voices, the spokesmen of recrimination and doubt." As rain threatens to obliterate Laurel's ancient dam, and the town itself, Conrad finds new meaning in the memory of his wife and in devotion to the White Mountains community where they both spent the best years of their lives. A town full of sympathetic characters, including the widowed neighbor who can only sleep when every light in the house is on, and the beleaguered editor of the local paper, round out this sensitive debut. Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalThis quiet first novel, set in a tiny New Hampshire village in the White Mountains, concerns a small town's varied reactions to the grief of a newly widowed man. Conrad Morrisey lives for his wife, Rose, and his homing pigeons. When Rose dies after a prolonged illness, Conrad retreats into a shell of memory and reflection. Through these myriad reflections, the reader comes to know and like Rose and to understand why her husband loved her so dearly. During one of the novel's many significant thunderstorms, Conrad spies an angel in Rose's vegetable garden and is immediately shaken loose from his emotional inertia. He feels compelled to share the experience with anyone who will listen, and this changes his relationship with the world forever in ways he never imagined. Firmly grounded by a strong sense of place, three-dimensional characters, and poetic writing, Rose's Garden is a joy to visit. Beautiful, bittersweet, and always moving, it is highly recommended.?Bettie Alston Shea, Charlotte-Mecklenburg P.L., Charlotte, N.C.Copyright 1998 Reed Business Information, Inc.