| The China Garden | |
| Author: | Kristina Olsson |
| Country: | Australia |
| Language: | English |
| Genre: | Novel |
| Publisher: | University of Queensland Press |
| Release Date: | March 2009 |
| Media Type: | |
| Pages: | 281 pp. |
| Isbn: | 9780702236976 |
| Awards: | Barbara Jefferis Award, winner 2010 |
The China Garden is a 2009 novel by the Australian author Kristina Olsson.[1]
Laura returns, after many years living overseas, to her coastal home in northern New South Wales to arrange the funeral for her mother Angela.
Writing in The Australian Book Review reviewer Kate McFadyen noted: "There is a symbolic core to The China Garden, but it is far too obvious. Laura has deliberately removed herself from the place of her childhood and all that it represents to her. She works as an arborist among the orchards of Umbria, but her sensitivity is such that she is moved to tears when she prunes fruit trees...A lighter touch might have struck the intended balance between fecundity and menace."[2]
After the novel's initial publication in Australia by University of Queensland Press in 2009, it was reprinted by the same publisher in 2011.[3]
The novel was also translated into German in 2012.[4]