The Twilight Garden

Adams’s (The Reading List) sophomore novel centers on a duplex with a shared back garden in a small London neighborhood in the 1970s. When Maya and her husband rent one side of the house, they join their prickly neighbor, Alma, in creating a vibrant and beautiful garden space, forging a dear friendship as they plant flowers, shrubs, trees, and vegetables. They turn the garden into a showpiece and then invite the local community to share it with them. Years later, two new neighbors war over the neglected space until packets of letters, photos, and newspaper clippings begin to come through their letter boxes, showing the garden in its former glory. Using the photos, they begin to work together to restore the garden. They once again open the space to the community, making new friends and discovering new alliances along the way. Adams creates well-rounded and empathetic characters. The story is told in chapters that alternate between the 1970s and the present. Shaheen Khan, Mikhail Sen, and Emily Stride narrate the audiobook skillfully, conveying the emotional and complex human interactions.