The Illegal Gardener (Greek Village Book 1)
Lift yourself, fill yourself full of hope and compassion!!
The Illegal Gardener is a moving, poignant story about life’s rare encounters which knock us off our path, and elevate our very existence.
Driven by a need for some control in her life, Juliet sells up on impulse and buys a run down farmhouse in a tiny Greek village, leaving her English life behind. Her boys have grown and she has finally divorced her bullying husband. This is her time now.
Whilst making her new home habitable, Juliet discovers she needs a sturdy helping hand with the unruly and neglected garden. Unwilling to share her newfound independence with anyone, but unable to do all the work by herself, she reluctantly enlists casual labour.
Aaman has travelled to Greece from Pakistan illegally. Desperate to find a way out of poverty, his challenge is to find work and raise money for the harvester his village urgently need to survive.
What he imagined would be a heroic journey in reality is fraught with danger and corruption. Aaman finds himself in Greece, and with each passing day loses a little more of himself as he survives his new life as an immigrant worker; illegal, displaced, unwanted and with no value. Hungry and stranded, how will he ever make it back home to Pakistan?
In what begins as an uncomfortable exchange, Juliet hires Aaman to be her gardener, but resents the intrusion even though she needs the help. Aaman needs the work and money but resents the humiliation.
In spite of themselves, as the summer progresses, they get to know one another and discover they have something in common. Pieces of their lives they have kept hidden even from themselves are exposed, with each helping the other to face their painful past.
Will Juliet and Amaan finally let each other in? And what will be the outcome of this improbable conjoining of two lost souls?
ASIN : B008LMT78U
Publisher : Oneiro Press
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : November 30, 2013
Edition : 1st
Language : English
File size : 1.4 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 290 pages
Page Flip : Enabled
Book 1 of 19 : Greek Village
Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,743 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #377 in General Greece Travel Guides #2,097 in Travel (Kindle Store)
Customer Reviews: 4.2 4.2 out of 5 stars (6,695) var dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction; P.when(‘A’, ‘ready’).execute(function(A) { if (dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction !== true) { dpAcrHasRegisteredArcLinkClickAction = true; A.declarative( ‘acrLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault”: true }, function (event) { if (window.ue) { ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrLinkClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } } ); } }); P.when(‘A’, ‘cf’).execute(function(A) { A.declarative(‘acrStarsLink-click-metrics’, ‘click’, { “allowLinkDefault” : true }, function(event){ if(window.ue) { ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”, (ue.count(“acrStarsLinkWithPopoverClickCount”) || 0) + 1); } }); });
Original price was: $11.14.$4.19Current price is: $4.19.
Lift yourself, fill yourself full of hope and compassion!!
The Illegal Gardener is a moving, poignant story about life’s rare encounters which knock us off our path, and elevate our very existence.
Driven by a need for some control in her life, Juliet sells up on impulse and buys a run down farmhouse in a tiny Greek village, leaving her English life behind. Her boys have grown and she has finally divorced her bullying husband. This is her time now.
Whilst making her new home habitable, Juliet discovers she needs a sturdy helping hand with the unruly and neglected garden. Unwilling to share her newfound independence with anyone, but unable to do all the work by herself, she reluctantly enlists casual labour.
Aaman has travelled to Greece from Pakistan illegally. Desperate to find a way out of poverty, his challenge is to find work and raise money for the harvester his village urgently need to survive.
What he imagined would be a heroic journey in reality is fraught with danger and corruption. Aaman finds himself in Greece, and with each passing day loses a little more of himself as he survives his new life as an immigrant worker; illegal, displaced, unwanted and with no value. Hungry and stranded, how will he ever make it back home to Pakistan?
In what begins as an uncomfortable exchange, Juliet hires Aaman to be her gardener, but resents the intrusion even though she needs the help. Aaman needs the work and money but resents the humiliation.
In spite of themselves, as the summer progresses, they get to know one another and discover they have something in common. Pieces of their lives they have kept hidden even from themselves are exposed, with each helping the other to face their painful past.
Will Juliet and Amaan finally let each other in? And what will be the outcome of this improbable conjoining of two lost souls?
ASIN : B008LMT78U
Publisher : Oneiro Press
Accessibility : Learn more
Publication date : November 30, 2013
Edition : 1st
Language : English
File size : 1.4 MB
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 290 pages
Page Flip : Enabled
Book 1 of 19 : Greek Village
Best Sellers Rank: #1,019,743 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store) #377 in General Greece Travel Guides #2,097 in Travel (Kindle Store)
9 reviews for The Illegal Gardener (Greek Village Book 1)
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Original price was: $11.14.$4.19Current price is: $4.19.
Phyllis Rader Eisenstadt –
Beautiful Narrative
This is a book that does not draw you in with a “hook” of any sort, so at times you just want to give up and put it down. Then, slowly but surely, without even noticing it, you become more involved with the characters, as the author imbues them with more depth. The two main characters are of different ethnic backgrounds, speak different languages, and come from entirely different cultures. Yet, Ms. Alexi manages to merge the differences into a profound learning experience for both protagonists. Juliet, the English female protagonist and homeowner finds herself gifted with Aaman, a talented gardener whom she sometimes introduces as her houseboy. He is an impoverished Pakistani gardener who enters her life in ways that are charming and totally unexpected. They each possess knowledge and traits that are passed on one to the other, sometimes subtly, sometimes directly.The story takes place in Greece — a country Juliet had visited some years ago, and to which she longed to return. The house she bought was in dire need of repairs, and Aaman, unable to find employment could not believe his good fortune when he was hired by Juliet and discovered the giving nature even she didn’t know she possessed.For the reader, there is much tension in their relationship — not sexual tension, but the tension of a dubious friendship between a single upper class English woman and a married, lower financial class Pakistani. Yet, Ms. Alexi makes it come together, tenderly, in a thoroughly believable manner. I loved this book and found it replete with Grecian flavor and thoroughly enjoyable.Get out the box of tissues!
chb book addict –
A view from the outside…
Definitely a change of genre to what I usually read but I really enjoyed this book. I admit I only paid .99 cents for the first six books in this series, but they are so highly acclaimed, I figured I’ve wasted more money for less, so I tried them. I’d do it again.The story is affecting and introspective, you begin to wonder what you would have done in the same circumstances. This is definitely not a romance but it does touch on the love between friends, family and people you come to care about because they have a specific need that you have never had to deal with.Juliet is from England, she has purchased a home in Greece and is in the process of fixing up her new domain. Her garden is in terrible shape and she has to hire help to clean it up. There are many illegal aliens who wait to be hired each day and they are they are perfect for her needs. She hires Aaman and Mahmout to do the work but after only one day, keeps Aaman because he is so fast and competent. Aaman has left his home in Pakistan to look for work so that he can take money back to help the village. Each day has its own problems, Aaman is small but strong so he isn’t often picked for construction, with the only wages he can earn it will be difficult to return to his village.The only problem I had with this book was, there was so much crying. It may be that I’m making more of it than it was but I’m used to people who suck it up and deal and that was not the case with these characters. Again, it didn’t impact the story.My big take away was, seeing the world from the other side and gaining perspective on the alien situation that most of the world is facing now and just what can be done to help them.I’ll take my time but I will be reading more of these books.
Moccasin –
Enjoyable, informative, and stylishly written.
My first Alexi book, Sara was unknown to me. It drew me because there seemed an intimation of similarities to Under The Tuscan Sun, which I loved. The first portions about the small refugee or imigre who wound up becoming the gardener were quite explicit, powerfully written, and gave a duality to the subject I was not ready for. As events unfolded, I accepted them as necessary to the plot as well as to humanizing Aaman, the Illegal Gardener. Juliet as a character evolved more slowly until her persona settled down. I had hoped she would not be a glib piece of fluff, and liked how she engaged the community with kindness and respect. A very moving point came during her relentless search for the detained Aaman, and in the barn where he stayed, her fingers on the two names he had etched in the clay. Very moving, as she comprehended what his existence encompassed. The story has flow, purpose, direction, power. Fiction it may be, but it is not a fairy tale, and I could see the humanity of the presentation.There were a few niggling typos as in many ebooks, but not on too many pages. I look forward to trying other titles by Sara Alexi. Since I am not a “formula” reader, and love real literature, it would be a joy to say ‘s. Alexi is the real thing.
Kiki Delahaut –
cute, short read
This is a sweet story set in Greece about a Pakistani illegal immigrant becoming friends with an English woman who has recently moved there. The woman is trying to escape the past of her doomed marriage and the man is on a quest to prove himself while trying courageously to earn enough money to help his village back home.If you want something simple, but fairly engaging and don’t mind some choppy writing, you’ll probably enjoy this.Cons: there are some jumps in the story where development was sorely lacking; the woman comes off occasionally as whiny and fickle; there are some distracting passages with a local shopkeeper that don’t really go anywhere (this would have been a better time to help the reader get a feel for the village itself); the writing is severely missing flow and coherency at times.Pros: the characters make you really root for their success as the story progresses; the male protagonist is well-developed and very engaging; the scenes in the garden are charming; there are some interesting references to some of the hardships that immigrants experience in some parts of the world.
Shirley Mitchell –
This is a book to be read slowly, and savoured. How the author has managed to get inside the minds of two characters so diverse absolutely astounds me. And now I know them too: delightful individual quirks, ingrained cultural mores, the way they walk, talk, eat, sleep, think, dream. Warts and all, I love them both.I am glad I read this after enjoying The Gypsy’s Dream because in that one I was thinking that I would like to know more about Juliet. And here she is with Aaman beside her. And the now familiar Village and its people just out of sight, down the lane, to be revisited from another point of view.
Cliente Amazon –
Great book, sensitive, perfectly paced and with depth, avoiding a sugar-coated ending. Well done, Sara, I look forward to reading more!
speedy –
I am not usually the reader of this type of feelings and love and personal problem stories. But this book really touched me. A nice development of a good friendship between people from different worlds and cultures. At times the action is foreseeable, but that is ok – we are dealing with situations we all know in some way. But the outcomes and how the characters respond is very refreshing and just beautiful.
NicShef❤️Reading –
There is great depth and honesty in Sara Alexi’s portrayal of the diverse characters from such different backgrounds in The Illegal Gardener. It took me a few chapters to realise how good this novel actually is as it started slowly however, I soon found myself engrossed in the story. I found I could read it decadently and enjoy the story while not wanting to rush through it to get to the ending – rare in books these days. The characters were developed slowly and the story line was established the same way. The novel expertly interweaves the lives of an English woman with the residents in the small Greek village she unexpectedly moves to. After leaving her home and children she becomes part of not only the village community but also forever changes the life of a stoic, deep, young refugee from Pakistan. It is done with a compassionate understanding of cultural differences. The author really shows the reader how to enjoy life in a strange country, not as a tourist, but as a native. She goes through the trials of learning how to live with its culture and learns the language and some of the customs of the inhabitants before her arrival. The progress of the novel was much like the progress any outsider might make while living in a new country. The story was very believable and beautiful. If you want a novel with substance – this is a great read.
MCan –
This was such an enjoyable read. The narrative was concise but descriptive and real. The characters were heroic but simple and so easy to empathize with because they were well developed and not one dimensional. Learning about them was like unfolding a gift, layer after layer. Aaman’s story teaches you to appreciate what you take for granted.I recommend this book and can’t wait to start the second volume.