The French Gardener

By: Santa Montefiore

Narrated by: Juanita McMahon

Length: 13 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

A spellbinding novel about marriage, passion, loss, renewal and the healing power of love from the number-one best-selling author of Songs of Love and War.

Married couple, Miranda and David, move out of London into a beautiful country house with an idyllic garden. But reality turns out to be very different from their bucolic dream. Soon the latent unhappiness in the family begins to come to the surface, isolating each family member in a bubble of resentment and loneliness.

Then a mysterious Frenchman arrives on their doorstep. With the wisdom of nature, he slowly begins to heal the past and the present. But who is he? When Miranda discovers his secret in the cottage by the garden, the whole family learns that a garden, like love itself, can restore the human spirit, not just season after season, but generation after generation.

Wise and winsome, poignant and powerfully moving, The French Gardener combines the savvy of contemporary women's fiction with an old fashioned sensibility steeped in the importance of family and the magical power of love.

©2008 Santa Montefiore (P)2021 W F Howes

Great story

One of her best stories. Only criticism is the chapter numbers are way out of whack.

Romanticising relationship breakdowns

Would have been a fantastic story if it hadn’t included the treachery of broken marriage covenants… as if it was a completely acceptable thing to do to one’s spouse. there’s truly nothing romantic or commendable about cheating on one’s spouse with someone else - it’s a very destructive thing for all concerned.
What promised to be an inspirational story eventually disappointed