Published June 6, 2023-Zibby Books-
Hedge was highlighted by Oprah Daily as one of the Best New Books for Spring and by PEOPLE Magazine as one of the Best Books For Summer!
Grateful Reader Review by Dorothy Schwab
In 2012, Maud is in a disintegrating marriage balancing the demands of motherhood. As a landscape historian in California, she takes on the restoration of Montgomery Place, a 19th century estate in New York’s Hudson Valley, which becomes a geographical and marital separation. Delury’s novel is filled with intricate historic gardening details and planning as Maud’s summer contract involves working with Gabriel, an archaeologist opening a dig in the same area. Reuniting at the end of their California school session, daughters Ella and Louise join Maud at Montgomery Place. The angst and instability of teenage daughter Ella adds a layer of turmoil to Maud’s developing relationship with Gabriel. Funding future projects depends on another budding relationship between wealthy recluse Alice Lincoln and Maud. Each of Delury’s slow growing, needy characters create emotional suspense layered with a hedge of secrecy.
Delury’s plot, twisting and turning like the garden labyrinth at Montgomery Place, sheds light on therapy for teenage fears and anxieties, marital communication and counseling, truth and trust in relationships, forgiveness, and finding a satisfying life path.
Jane Delury holds a BA in English and French literature from UC Santa Cruz, a maîtrise from the University of Grenoble, and an MA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. A professor at the University of Baltimore, she teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts and directs the BA in English. She lives in Baltimore with her daughters and her partner, the writer Don Lee.
The Grateful Reader 