Garden of Earthly Bodies, Sally Oliver
Garden of Earthly Bodies, Sally Oliver
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Garden of Earthly Bodies
A Novel

Author: Sally Oliver

Narrator: Mandy Weston

Unabridged: 9 hr 52 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 06/07/2022


Synopsis

An exquisitely eerie and unsettling speculative novel that grapples with questions of trauma, identity, and the workings of memory
Months after her sister’s death, Marianne wakes up to find a growth of thick black hairs along her spine. They defy her attempts to remove them, instead proliferating, growing longer. The hairs, Marianne’s doctor tells her, are a reaction to trauma, developed in the wake of the loss of her sister, Marie. Her doctor recommends that Marianne visits Nede, a modern, New Age rehabilitation center in a remote forest in Wales where the patients attend unorthodox therapy sessions and commune with nature.

Yet something strange is happening to Marianne and the other patients at Nede: a metamorphosis of a kind. As the hairs on her back continue to grow, the past starts to entangle itself with the present and the borders of her consciousness threaten to disintegrate. She finds herself drawn back compulsively to the memory of Marie, obsessing over the impulse that drew her sister toward death and splintered her family apart. As Marianne’s memories threaten to overwhelm her, Nede offers her release from this cycle of memory and pain—but only at a terrible price: that of identity itself.

Haunting, lyrical, and introspective, Garden of Earthly Bodies is a startlingly accomplished and original debut about the bond between two sisters, love and its limits, and our inability to ever truly to know the minds of others. With an intense and precise attention to the internal workings of minds and bodies and a disturbing speculative plot, the novel welcomes an assured new voice to the genre.

Reviews

Goodreads review by Lori on August 11, 2022

I think my expectations were too high going into this one. The title and cover immediately drew me in, and it sounded like just my kind of weird. Only... it didn't live up to the anticipated strangeness as much as I had hoped. The book focuses on Marianne, a woman who is deeply grieving the loss of......more

Goodreads review by Louise on April 11, 2022

3.5 stars Some great scenes, and some not so great ones. I really was torn on this book., at times it had me hooked, and yet it seemed to drag to get to the retreat. For me the best parts involved Marianne and her relationship with her sister. I'm definitely interested in reading more by this author.......more

Goodreads review by Doreen on July 01, 2022

6/28/2022 Full review tk at TheFrumiousConsortium.net. 7/1/2022 I must say, the American title is much better than the painfully generic The Weight Of Loss this novel was saddled with across the pond. Garden Of Earthly Bodies at least hints at the speculative fiction plot contained within these pages......more

Goodreads review by Walker on October 24, 2022

There were some really great parts in this book hidden in between pointlessly long flashbacks.......more

Goodreads review by gracie :) on May 20, 2022

[Read as an ARC through Edelweiss] 4.5 stars Realistically, this book is a 4-star read. However, I felt so seen in the portrayal of mental illness and the beautiful prose with which it was delivered. I probably highlighted a third of the book. Also, anything (even remotely) related to nature immediate......more