Life in the Garden Audiobook By Penelope Lively cover art

Life in the Garden

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From the Booker Prize winner and national bestselling author, reflections on gardening, art, literature, and life

Penelope Lively takes up her key themes of time and memory, and her lifelong passions for art, literature, and gardening in this philosophical and poetic memoir. From the courtyards of her childhood home in Cairo to a family cottage in Somerset, to her own gardens in Oxford and London, Lively conducts an expert tour, taking us from Eden to Sissinghurst and into her own backyard, traversing the lives of writers like Virginia Woolf and Philip Larkin while imparting her own sly and spare wisdom. "Her body of work proves that certain themes never go out of fashion," writes the New York Times Book Review, as true of this beautiful volume as of the rest of the Lively canon.

Now in her eighty-fourth year, Lively muses, "To garden is to elide past, present, and future; it is a defiance of time." Gardening & Horticulture Biographies & Memoirs Art & Literature Gardening Authors

Critic reviews

Praise for Penelope Lively

“Lively writes with an astringent blend of sympathy and detachment, emotional wisdom and satiric wit.”
—Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times

“One of our most talented writers.”
—The New York Times Book Review

“A consummate storyteller.”
—The Seattle Times

“In her own late seventies now, with a legion of regular readers and newcomers with every book, Lively continues to surprise and illuminate, writing to ever more dazzling effect.”
—The Boston Globe

“Witty, gentle-humored, sharp . . . Lively is a keen observer and an engaging narrator.”
—NPR’s All Things Considered
All stars
Most relevant
Listen while gardening. It was interesting, but not something I would normally read. I purchased a few of the books that were mentioned in this book.

Good Read if You Love Gardening and Litature!

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A soothing and inspiring listen. 1 ding on Performance because Narrator repeatedly mispronounced My Ántonia by Willa Cather. Should be AN-tə-nee-ə.

Soothing and Inspiring

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Very good enjoyed the garden piece of it. And also the story side of it.

Very good

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Interesting read and enjoyable with many great references to gardening and even some of its history. I would have given it a solid five star review but for the unnecessary shots at Monty Don whom I happen to like and has written some great books too on gardening.

Enjoyable Read

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I highly suggest anyone with a passion for gardening read it, you will absolutely enjoy it!

An absolute joy to read

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