The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

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Alice Hart, de nueve años, se despierta en el hospital tras un incendio que ha arrasado su casa, le ha arrebatado a sus padres y la ha dejado muda. Su único familiar es la abuela paterna, June, que dirige una plantación de flores en la que acoge a mujeres que atraviesan circunstancias complicadas. En el ambiente sosegado y luminoso de la granja, la chica recupera poco a poco la voz y la confianza en sí misma mientras se va haciendo mayor y aprende el lenguaje de las flores autóctonas y los sentimientos que éstas expresan, un tiempo feliz cuya placidez se verá truncada tras una traición y una pérdida irreparables. Así, a los veintiséis años, Alice decide escapar sin dejar rastro y refugiarse en un rincón del desierto central; sin embargo, en este paisaje tan espectacular que parece de otro mundo, y sin la protección de las flores, se sentirá vulnerable, a merced del amor de un hombre carismático y de un pasado que no deja de acecharla. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is like Practical Magic with flowers instead of witchcraft. Several generations of women in one family line, a big old house, a fairy tale vibe, romance, abusive men. The writing was also reminiscent of Alice Hoffman’s dreamy style – clearly Holly Ringland is strongly influenced by Hoffman’s work. The best fairy tales traverse the darkest corners of the human heart, and this beautiful novel is no exception. Truth and illusion, devastation and triumph, The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart will spit you out whole -- Myfanwy Jones Alice survives, too. While she’s in the hospital, her grandmother shows up: June is Clem’s mother, who never met Alice and didn’t speak to anyone in her family for years. We discover that Agnes has decided in her will that June will have custody of Alice, but if there are doubts about her capacity to care for her, the custody will go to Sally, the librarian. This surprises everybody: Agnes wasn’t so close to Sally to justify this decision.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - HarperCollins Australia The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - HarperCollins Australia

Unfortunately, I found the last third of the book to be weak. It strayed too far from the feeling of the first two-thirds of the book and had a distinctly overly melodramatic feel. More characters are introduced (oh how I wish Moss had a bigger role!) and Alice became someone I almost didn't recognize; she was irritating, immature and made obviously bad decisions. Unfortunately, this part of the story did not grip me as the earlier parts of the book and I found the ending to be predictable. Sometimes heartbreaking and at other times uplifting, this is a story about family, love, loss, regret and secrets. More than anything, Alice wanted to find out her own story, but it was the secrets kept by those who loved her most that prevented her from discovering who she was and where she came from.

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When Alice Hart was a child, her life was pretty challenging. Her father, Clem, is a violent man who often beats her. Alice is a sensitive girl who loves reading and often visits the library with her mother, Agnes. The librarian, Sally, shows special care for Alice: the little girl reminds her of Gemma, Sally’s daughter, who died some years before.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Google Books

A young girl loses both her parents in a tragic event, and is taken to live with her grandmother on a flower farm. Growing up, Alice learns the language of Australian native flowers as a way to say the things that are too hard to speak. But she also learns that there are secrets within secrets about her past. An unexpected betrayal leaves her reeling, and she escapes to try to make her own - sometimes painful - way through the world, and to find her story. There are also some plot points that are more noticeably glossed over than others. We learn that Twig’s children were taken from her by social services, for example, but nothing is made of the fact that she is an Indigenous woman and that this experience resonates with Australian history in a specific and terrible way. I think this author will find a big fan base – she’s got a lot of talent, so I’ll be keeping an eye out for her next book. This novel shines with courage, with heart, and with love. Infused with a tender ferocity, and the beauty and warmth of native flowers, it invokes great stories of loss, kindness and home -- Ashley Hayit sounds beautiful. Many descriptions are beautiful. I felt there were too many characters, too many stories competing for attention, and too much misery and tears. And too many secrets that didn’t need to be kept, leading to a rather abrupt ending. June Hart is a fascinating character, a distant, cold woman who seems almost put out by having Alice around even though she fights with Sally for custody of the child. The narrative jumps halfway through the season to Alice as a young adult (now played excellently by Alycia Debnam-Carey), and several decisions that June made in that time-leap come to the fore, which she thought were protecting Alice but at a great cost. The final stretch of the season also gives June a disease, which seems manipulative at first, but allows Weaver some of the richest dramatic material of her career as she comes to terms with the choices she made, the traumas that shaped her, and how both planted the seeds for Alice’s lost flowers. Alice's desire to set her father on fire stems from his abuse, and the fire may have been an act of rebellion and a coping mechanism. The twists and turns, though far more stately and measured than in an outright thriller, are plentiful enough to keep you hooked. What is missing, however, is any real sense of the characters involved, or their relationships to each other. What should be a closeknit sisterhood is instead a collection of individuals defined by and detached from each other by their secrets, guilt or other internal damage. The Flowers are ciphers, not flesh and blood women, which feels like an awful waste. Even the protagonists – June, both Alices, Twig and Sally – never feel fully formed, despite deeply committed and excellent performances. Haunting and dangerous – that was her time in the middle of Australia. But would Alice ever find solace? Could she make peace with her past and finally look forward to the future?