Conversations with my Gardener - Softcover

Cueco, Henri

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1862078408 ISBN 13: 9781862078406

Publisher: Granta Books, 2006

Synopsis

Tales of life, death and lettuce in a French garden. Two men, both advancing in years, converse deep in the French countryside. One is an artist, the other his gardener. On finishing his work, the gardener enters the studio and looks over the artist's shoulder. As the artist draws, the gardener talks: about his youth, his family, his travels, his health, and, of course, the pleasures of gardening. Sometimes the artist responds, sometimes he just listens; but, all the while the bond between these two very different men is deepening. Their growing friendship produces many moments of dry humour: when the gardener visits the artist in Paris, he brings an anvil along in his luggage; the pair go to the forest on a mission to steal a twenty- foot fir tree; they marvel at the curious habits of local characters, and ponder whether a modern-day Jesus would take a job on the railway. There are moments of profundity, too, when the two friends reflect on their own mortality, and the equally taxing question of whether a lettuce can be as beautiful as a painting.

About this title

Product Description:

Unusual book

Review:

‘Charming and, in its more cryptic moments, genuinely compelling’ -- The Independent on Sunday

‘Low-key but oddly satisfying, it is a book that slowly grows on you’ -- Observer

About this edition

• Publisher: Granta Books
• Publication date: 2006
• ISBN 10: 1862078408
• ISBN 13: 9781862078406
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224