Anna Pearl, newly widowed and estranged from her adult daughter, avid gardener, both whimsical and wild, is found face down in the midst of ferns and gout weed in her front garden by her next-door neighbor who has been alternately inspired and overwhelmed by the "jungle" she has created. Infuriated by the spectacle of this seeming death wish her out-of-doors and above ground "fall" embodies, he commands her son return once more to manage his mother's behaviour. A three-day vigil ensues, conceived by the neighbour's wife and a woman who has been Anna Pearl's secret confidante over the years, a vigil that abides in the liminal space between above and below ground worlds. Suspended between life and death, Anna Pearl brings both her son and daughter together, releases truths long denied, and mentors an imaginative grasp of growth and garden those living nearby can discover with their own hands.

Educator, activist, editor, and writer, Deborah Schnitzer is the author of the novel, Gertrude Unmanageable, the long poem, Loving Gertrude Stein, as well as scholarly works and critical anthologies equally devoted to the unexpected. Her latest book, An Unexpected Break in the Weather, won the 2010 Margaret Laurence Award for Fiction. Schnitzer is a 3M Teaching Fellow in the English Department at the University of Winnipeg.

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