The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

I wanted to really love this, but I found it quite contrived and disjointed. Instead of the symbolism throughout Alice's life flowing organically and naturally through the prose, I felt as though the author was banging me over the head with it. “Look here! This flower means this! And this is happening to Alice! Gasp!” It's not bad at all, and I'm sure many readers will love it, but the over flowery (pun!!) writing and plot is not really my thing.

A beautifully written Australian novel ideal for lovers of gardening, flowers and the language of flowers. After a tragic accident, Alice is sent to live with her grandmother on a flower farm that also acts as a retreat for women. But Alice and her grandmother find that they are unable to escape the secrets of the past or their own guilt. Holly RIngland very cleverly interweave the ideas of Kierkegaard, in particular she was inspired by the quotation “life is lived forward but only understood backward”. Kierkengaard believed in the idea that we are unable to be ever completely happy as we are constantly forced to make impossible decisions. Poor Alice and her grandmother both make some difficult decisions throughout the book with mixed results. Will Alice ever find out the secrets of her past and be able to move forward? I loved this book, though it was a hard read at times due to some of the themes.