Garden of the Plagues by Russel Brownlee

Description

Set in the Dutch settlement at the Cape in 1685, the time of Simon van der Stel, and peopled by a fascinating array of characters – the officials, victims, survivors and rogues who inhabited the early settlement the story focuses on Adam Wijk, the rather reclusive gardener and botanist caring for the Company’s gardens. Despite his reserved outward appearance there is something enigmatic about Wijk, and as the mystery slowly unfolds it is revealed that he was a physician during the Black Death in London, and there is a reason for his ‘exile’ – he treated a smallpox case by experimenting with an antidote and was then stripped of his license. Into Wijk’s lonely life at the Cape comes a stranger, a mute woman from a seemingly plague-ridden Dutch ship lying at anchor in Tablebay. As he tends the sick woman he finds that she reawakens in him feelings long dead and their relationship develops into a poignant love story rich in atmosphere and detail.

Here is an original voice narrating a wonderful tale which combines realism with the fantastic, and which will enchant many readers.