Originally Published 30 May 2019
A haunting book without being bleak, a feat in and of itself. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart draws deeply on the Australian landscape and is intensely evocative in its depiction of the natural environment. It also has one of the best lines about libraries that I’ve ever read “a quiet garden of books, where stories grew like flowers”. This is a story that draws you in to inhabit a lush world along with the characters. From a design perspective as well, with its continuing flower motifs throughout the book, it is a truly lovely reading experience.
The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is first and foremost a compelling story, that makes you want to keep reading. It’s the story of Alice Hart as her life unfolds; set between sugar cane fields, a flower farm and the desert heart of Australia. It spans twenty plus years, beginning with Alice as a child living with her mother and father in the sugar cane fields of the coast. Alice’s life is isolated (a violent controlling father and a mother who is heart-breakingly fragile but gentle and loving) she lives in a world of stories. When her life is ripped apart by tragedy, she is sent to live with June, her paternal grandmother, on a flower farm that serves as a refuge for abused and lost women and has been in the family for generations. June teaches Alice the language of flowers and she begins to find her place and her family. Ultimately betrayal forces her to flee, and she finds solace, peace and purpose in the heart of the Australian desert, until a new relationship begins to change the control of her own story.
The landscapes evolve with Alice as her life is thrown into upheaval and she flees trauma. It’s the story of a woman looking for her place and her own narrative, independent of those forced upon her by others. It isn’t always a happy story, there are some very dark parts, but it is ultimately a story of hope, resilience, survival and the language of flowers.
Reviewed By Ellen Coates