Bewitching tale of how love saves, enslaves
POPPY is a 6-year-old girl living with her mother who has serious addiction problems. She remembers watching television in a grotty little dwelling with “seaweed” hanging from the windows. She doesn’t speak, she watches.
And then one day a man appears at the door, her grandfather, and he takes Poppy away from his haggard daughter, Yolande.
Her grandfather brings her back to the Western Cape, to the winelands where they still live, although most of the farm has been sold off. Under the care of her grandparents Poppy learns to love her grandmother’s garden; to learn how to feed a rosebush, how to create beauty and joy. At the back of her mind is always her mother’s apparent last words to her: “Just remember, even if you do manage to get rid of me, Poppy, I’ll always find you. You can bet on that.”
As Poppy is eased into her new life by her grandfather and grandmother, who both love her dearly and wisely, she also begins to make friends and deals with the strangeness of the old farm, now in the hands of a wealthy family, and where she is told she must never go.
When a young man, a sculptor, begins working on the forbidden farm, Poppy falls under his thrall. As she creeps closer and closer to watch him work, they become something of an item.
Then the oddly bucolic rhythm of Poppy’s life begins to shift, the seasons change, and she persuades him to take her on a business trip to Cape Town. This unleashes a series of events that threaten to overturn Poppy’s very existence.
Bone Meal for Roses is an absorbing book about how far one will go to rescue someone, the extent to which one will live a lie in order to protect a garden and a way of life.
Told beautifully, it’s about how love can both save and enslave. A wonderful read, with just the right amount of incipient threat to keep the reader engaged by the plot and the beauty of the narrative.