The Cross Gardener

Oh my - have tissues near. A friend recommended this book and I decided to order it on CD. I love to listen to books when I'm driving and thought this would be different from the ones I usually purchase. I great up in this area of VA and so I knew when the author said going to this place or that - or taking this road or that - exactly where it was taking place. I won't go into to much of the story, because I think it is worth reading or listening to and seeing how it impact you. I have loaned it to the person that recommended it since she had read the book, and really wanted to hear it on CD. It is one of those books that you really wish continued in the lives of these individuals. I would love to see how their lives were impacted in years to come by the "Cross Gardener". I really recommended this book/CDs but just have some tissues close by.

The Cross Gardener is wonderful book to add to your collection, especially if you're a Jason F. Wright fan. Wright is the New York Times bestselling author of Christmas Jars, The Wednesday Letters, and Recovering Charles.Wright skillfully paints John Bevan as a character with incredible depth. John's life starts out tragically. Right from birth, death is an ever-present part of his life when his mother dies in a car accident that instigates her labor. At the age of four, John is adopted by a single man who runs an orchard. Only then does he learn what unconditional love is.John's journey in life applies to all of us as he faces the death of his wife. As a young widower, with a six-year-old daughter, John doesn't know how to heal the gaping hole in his heart. His orchard business suffers, he isolates himself from his in-laws and friends, and no matter how much time passes he can't seem to exist beyond the moment of his wife's death.John becomes obsessive about visiting his wife's gravesite and the location where she was killed. During one of his daily visits, he encounters a strange man who calls himself the cross gardener. A friendship slowly forms between the two men until John learns to open up to the stranger. The cross gardener teaches John how to listen, how to lighten the burdens of his past, how to savor the world again, and how to add meaning back into his relationships.The Cross Gardener is a book teeming with emotion, truth, and insightfulness into the human heart. A story of hope and healing that brightens the dark corners of despair, simultaneously offering the reader a gratifying journey.

I love this book!! As you finish 'The Cross Gardener' you will take a deep breath of relief as your shoulders release that knot of tension while having tears streaming down your cheeks. Your heart will find that sense of peace and understanding you have been desperately seeking since the loss of your loved one.'The Cross Gardener' brought my heart and my soul a sense of peace, and now a sense of knowing that someone was there to meet my loved one on her way to the other side. We are never alone. As Jason stated during one of his talks, God has someone there when we come into the world, it only makes sense that God would have someone with us as we cross the veil.I think this book may hit home more for those of us who have suffered a loss of a loved one. Keep your tissues handy, there will be lots of boo-hooing as you read this book.I have read all of Jason's books and this one is now my favorite (well, maybe it's tied with the `Christmas Jars'). All of Jason's books gives the reader some hope, inspiration, love, acceptance, and peace. I have gifted several copies of his books and shall continue to do so. Thanks Jason Wright for giving me that sense of peace deep in my heart with 'The Cross Gardener'.

One of Wright’s gifts is his ability to make the reader feel what the characters are feeling—grief, despair, happiness, and/or satisfaction with their lives. His description of grief is so poignant that readers have to sometimes stop and collect themselves. There is always an undercurrent of hope, however, that the characters will be able to rise above their circumstances and create a new life. Cross Gardener is writing and story telling at its best, but it’s the ending that makes this novel special.

I loved the way he showed how we are showered in loveI felt it dragged a little towards the end but it ended well

I keep buying these and giving them out. I started reading the book on an airplane I could put the book down after landing. Sat in the airport reading and experiencing all kinds of emotions. I have traveled all the roads mentioned in the book. Native Virginia.

Refreshingly different approach to grief. Honest portrayal of grief stages and responses. Narrative dragged some in the middle after a strong start. My only serious critique was the sections that were pure fantasy (e.g. dead babies growing to adulthood in the after life) in an otherwise piece of realistic contemporary fiction. Mixing genres didn't work well and certainly weren't biblical.

Having just lost my father in March at age 92, "The Cross Gardener" was just what I needed as a reminder that each of us has to experience the four stages of grief in our own way. The story was beautifully written and I actually read it a 2nd time as soon as I finished the 1st read. The second time through I was able to see more through the eyes of the main character's friends and family and got the full experience I needed. I was totally surprised at who the main cross gardener turned out to be and that was very poignant as well. This is a book that I will give to family and friends with my best recommendation.