A THOUSAND PAPER BIRDS by Tor Udall

(Bloomsbury £16.99) TOR UDALL’S debut is set mostly in Kew Gardens — a secular Eden steeped in the language of death and renewal. And it proves an abundant and richly suggestive backdrop for this unusual story about young musician Jonah, who is nearly capsized by grief over his recently deceased wife, Audrey, and the children they were unable to have, even while he embarks on a new, somewhat half-hearted affair with artist Chloe.

But then there is Harry, a war veteran and gardener at Kew, whom it seems Audrey had got to know in the months before her death. And who is Milly, the little girl who appears to live in the gardens and who calls Harry dad?

Udall’s book has a severe case of firstnovelitis: it’s over-written, takes itself too seriously and is suffused with whimsy. Yet there is also no doubting the ambition of Udall, as she weaves a complex story about the mysterious ways a life can linger, like a scent, and how grief and love can sometimes feel so vast and overwhelming that no earthly landscape can contain them.