Transcendent Gardening — Ed Falco

Set in the North Georgia mountains, in the fictional city of Redvale, Transcendent Gardening is the story of Angel Maso, a gardener and would-be playwright, whose life has been quietly unraveling ever since his wife, Dolores, a.k.a. Doll Maso, divorced him. Doll, who continues to live in Redvale, is happy and successful and well-adjusted in her new life. Their daughter, Claire, is also successful, wildly so, as a social media entrepreneur. Angel, however, has been struggling for years, eking out a livelihood as a gardener and part-time poets-in-the-schools teacher—and when all that falls apart, so does Angel, with consequences that shake both the city of Redvale and the nation.Transcendent Gardening is a master class in character and motive, and Ed Falco is an absolute poet of human frailty and calamity. He finds wonder even in the deepest pain. This novel is sometimes dark, often funny, and always wise. I couldn't put it down. (Alyson Hagy, author of Scribe)In Transcendent Gardening, Ed Falco is processing the collective trauma of gun violence in America. This is urgent, compelling reading. (Julianna Baggot, author of Harriet Wolf's Seventh Book of Wonders)Ed Falco knows how we all hurt, how we all deceive ourselves, most of all how the mechanisms of the mind can tragically misfire. Transcendent Gardening is terrifying. (Kyle Minor, author of Praying Drunk)