Hedge

Jane Delury is the author of The Balcony (Little, Brown) which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short stories have appeared in Granta, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, Narrative, and other publications. Her awards include a PEN/O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Special Mention, and grants from the Maryland State Arts Council. Her essays have appeared in Real Simple, Oprah.com, LitHub, and Poets and Writers. A professor at the University of Baltimore, she teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts and directs the BA in English. Originally from Sacramento, CA, she now lives in Baltimore with her family.

An emotionally charged, richly observed novel about a woman balancing the demands of motherhood and marriage with her own needs. Maud is a talented garden historian and devoted mom to daughters Ella and Louise. Motivated to reignite her career and escape her troubled marriage, she accepts a summer job restoring the garden of a lush, 19th-century estate in the Hudson Valley. Reveling in her work and temporary independence, Maud relishes her days in the sun. While waiting for her daughters to join her at the end of their school year, she strikes up a friendship with a coworker, archeologist Gabriel Crews. As the two share nightly dinners, their relationship grows more intimate, and Maud starts to imagine a future outside of her stifling marriage. Once Ella and Louise arrive, however, she is torn by her desire for Gabriel, her obligations to her daughters, and her growing concern for Ella's dark moods. Is Ella acting out because she senses that Maud and Gabriel have fallen in love? What happens next is a seismic shock that profoundly changes Maud's life, as well as the lives of everyone she cares about. Deeply moving and impossible to put down, Hedge is an unforgettable portrait of a woman's longing to be a good mother while still answering the call of her soul and mind.