Julie’s Garden

From the author of The Peanut Factory, comes Julie's Garden, a finely crafted story of one man's struggle to find peace and caring in a world that is frightening and  inexplicable. 

8-year-old Danny O'Hara is flung from his parent's vehicle as it plunges down an embankment and comes to rest short steps from the muddy Fraser River. And that is where the paramedics found him. Cold, rocking back and forth, hands over ears, an empty Mars Bar wrapper nested in his lap as further down the bank his parents burned to death in the hell of a steel inferno. 

The tragic death of his parents thrusts Danny into the depths of state care, a river as murky as the mighty Fraser, from which he had been spared.  

Danny's lack of  communication frustrates adults and wins him the derision and abuse of his peers.  In youth detention he meets Frankie Fitzpatrick and the two boys become fast friends. When Danny continues to run from his foster placements authorities give up and allow him to stay "in a free home" under the supervision of Frankie's single mom, Julie, who is an avid back yard gardener. Here, Danny finds acceptance, understanding and love.  But when Julie dies and Frank abandons him, he is once again set adrift in a world he finds incomprehensible. How Danny makes his way with out family or friends is the substance of, Julie's Garden