A Garden Wall in Provence

Carrie Jane Knowles

Owl Canyon Press Softcover $24.95 (142pp) 978-0-9911211-7-5

A Garden Wall in Provence is a pleasing romp through the countryside of France, complete with quirky neighbors and croissants.

Carrie Jane Knowles’s A Garden Wall in Provence is an utterly charming novella about mothers and daughters, about being neighborly, and about the power and importance of fresh bread.

Madame Reynaud, a widow, lives in Avignon, France, with her daughter, Monique, who is about to celebrate her thirtieth birthday. Monique was injured by the fierce mistral winds as a child, which resulted in her walking with a pronounced limp.

The overprotective Madame Reynaud has actively discouraged Monique from moving out on her own or getting a job. As Madame Reynaud plans Monique’s birthday party, she also navigates through the diplomacy of buying bread. There are unspoken rules about where to shop for bread—it is considered bad form to walk into one bakery holding a bag that clearly indicates you shopped at another bakery that day. Throw