I Took the Pieces You Threw Away

In January 2012, Jordan H Poole moved back to his hometown of Summerville, Georgia with an arguably insane idea: save Howard Finster's Paradise Garden. Finster — Baptist preacher, bicycle repairman, and self-taught visionary artist — had transformed four swampy acres into one of America's most celebrated art environments. R.E.M. filmed there. The Smithsonian collected his work. Presidents commissioned his paintings. And then he died, and the garden started falling apart. I Took the Pieces You Threw Away is the story of what happened next. Of sinking buildings lifted from swamp using Jenga logic. Of prophetic paintings discovered in rafters. Of small-town politics, family feuds, interpretive dancers, and a rattlesnake in a jar. Of the particular madness of trying to save something that most people in your own hometown can't quite bring themselves to take seriously — and the quiet miracle that happens when enough people decide it's worth the trouble anyway. This is a memoir about a broken place, a broken man's vision, and a person who got a little broken trying to save it. And somehow beauty won.