The insistent garden

the long version

Edith Stoker's father is building a wall in their backyard. A very, very high wall -- a brick bulwark in his obsessive war against their hated neighbour Edward Black. It is 1969, and far away, preparations are being made for man to walk upon the moon. Meanwhile, in the Stokers' shabby home in the East Midlands, Edith remains a virtual prisoner, with occasional visits from her grotesque and demanding Aunt Vivian serving as the only break in the routine. But when shy, sheltered Edith begins to quietly cultivate a garden in the shadow of her father's wall, she sets in motion events that might gain her independence--and bring her face to face with the mysterious Edward Black. Rosie Chard's follow-up to her award-winning debut Seal Intestine Raincoat unfolds like a grown-up take on The Secret Garden, an engrossing, often mordantly funny portrait of a young woman who miraculously finds her own pathway to freedom within the most stifling of environs.