The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart

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The working pinafores and little girl's wardrobe seem almost midcentury - as if the flower farm which serves as a refuge for all these traumatized women not only keeps out abusive men, but the sands of time as well. It came with organic tea bags, and Belgium chocolates and bath salts, and so, when a storm swept its way across Sydney earlier last week, and brought with it looming skies and clattering rain, I used it as the perfect excuse to cosy up indoors with some uninterrupted reading time.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart review – Sigourney Weaver is The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart review – Sigourney Weaver is

The workers on the flower farm – all women who have fled some sort of abuse or trauma – refer to themselves collectively as ‘The Flowers’. Alice has no idea where she’s going to go and she ends up in the desert of the Northern Territory and where the sturt's desert peas flower nine months of the year.

While the plot of The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart continues, we discover more connections between Sally and Alice’s family. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart opens with 9-year-old Alice Hart dreaming of ways to set her father on fire.

The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart - Pan Macmillan

On the Australian coast, miles away from the nearest town, nine-year-old Alice Hart lives in fear of her father's dark moods. Interestingly enough, this isn't the first book I've read about a young woman with a difficult childhood who finds solace in the language of flowers. In some scenes, her character, June Hart, is icy and impassive, yet there are glimmers of her inner torment and humanity which keep us rooting for her. The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart is all that and more, by an Australian author I’ll be keeping an eye out for from now on! It's a beautifully crafted book, with not only a gorgeous cover but also each chapter has the drawing of an Australian native flower and a bit of information about it.Alice thinks she has found solace, until she falls in love with Dylan, a charismatic and ultimately dangerous man. And it must be said that I’m completely in love with the cover art, even if the story within was not what I hoped for. After Alice’s parents die, Sally does her best to obtain custody, but she ultimately accepts that June will take care of her. The book implies that the characters are expressing what they can’t say in words through flowers but it’s a pretty limited language, they are really not saying much.