In a garden surrounded by a tall fence, tucked away behind
a small, quiet house in an even smaller town, is an apple
tree that is rumored to bear a very special sort of fruit.
In this luminous debut novel, Sarah Addison Allen tells
the story of that enchanted tree, and the extraordinary
people who tend it.… The Waverleys have
always been a curious family, endowed with peculiar gifts
that make them outsiders even in their hometown of Bascom,
North Carolina. Even their garden has a reputation, famous
for its feisty apple tree that bears prophetic fruit, and
its edible flowers, imbued with special powers.
Generations of Waverleys tended this garden. Their history
was in the soil. But so were their futures.
A
successful caterer, Claire Waverley prepares dishes made
with her mystical plants—from the nasturtiums that aid in
keeping secrets and the pansies that make children
thoughtful, to the snapdragons intended to discourage the
attentions of her amorous neighbor. Meanwhile, her elderly
cousin, Evanelle, is known for distributing unexpected
gifts whose uses become uncannily clear. They are the last
of the Waverleys—except for Claire’s rebellious sister,
Sydney, who fled Bascom the moment she could, abandoning
Claire, as their own mother had years before.
When
Sydney suddenly returns home with a young daughter of her
own, Claire’s quiet life is turned upside down—along with
the protective boundary she has so carefully constructed
around her heart. Together again in the house they grew up
in, Sydney takes stock of all she left behind, as Claire
struggles to heal the wounds of the past. And soon the
sisters realize they must deal with their common legacy—if
they are ever to feel at home in Bascom—or with each
other.
Enchanting and heartfelt, this captivating
novel is sure to cast a spell with a style all its own….
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