Hedge by Jane Delury
What is a mother? Mothers are often characterized as caring and selfless. They put their children above anything or anyone else.
But mothers are still women, and women have desires of their own. What happens when the role of woman and mother clash? Jane Delury explores these conflicting roles in her latest novel, Hedge (Zibby Books), through the story of Maud, a woman torn between her love for her children and her love for something more.
“Yes,” Maud thought. “I’m madly in love with my children. But why can’t I have more than one mad love?”
To Be Selfless, or to Be True to Oneself
Maud, a talented garden historian and devoted mother of two girls, is working on a project in New York one summer when things unexpectedly take a turn for the worse. She is in the middle of separating from her husband and living across the country at Montgomery Place, where she’s in charge of the historic estate’s garden restoration. However, working side by side with the charming Gabriel proves to be distracting as she slowly starts to fall for the handsome archeologist. But when her girls come out to stay with her for the summer, Maud must hide her growing affections or risk hurting her children.
She tries to balance her duties as a mother with her growing passion for Gabriel when, one night, the unexpected happens. When her older daughter, 13-year-old Ella, disappears, Maud can’t help but think the worst has happened. When Ella is finally found, dark secrets are revealed that threaten to tear Maud’s world apart, and nothing will ever be the same.
Two years after the incident at Montgomery Place, Maud and her family are still recovering. For the sake of her daughters, Maud has put her own needs on the back burner and reunited with her husband, and the two try to carry on some semblance of a loveless marriage. She has squashed any thoughts of pursuing a passion other than her work.
In her new job restoring The Presidio’s garden, Maud makes an unexpected new friend that leads her down a path of self-discovery and reflection. As the family navigates the difficult waters of emotional trauma, therapy and recovery, Maud must rediscover who she is. Can she still be a good mother while answering the call of her mind and soul?
An Immersive, Compelling Read
Set against the beautiful and culturally rich backdrops of these historic estates, Delury explores the complexities of womanhood and motherhood. Not only is her imagery impeccably detailed and vivid, but her character analyses are thorough and thought provoking.
Maud’s friend Alice is a melancholic, eccentric enigma readers are sure to fall in love with. Peter, Maud’s husband, is a complex, often unlikeable character that takes a sympathetic turn towards the end. The portrayal of Ella’s character was handled exceptionally well, revealing the harsh realities of self-harm and taking a raw look at its effects on individuals and families.
Maud is a dynamic character readers can’t help but empathize with; in the beginning, she is a stubborn optimist, but as the events of the novel unfold, she transforms into a cynical worrier and, finally, into a peaceful realist. Her journey toward regaining her womanhood as a mother is fraught with obstacles and takes some unexpected turns.While the majority of Hedge is a deep-dive look into Maud’s inner conflict and personal journey, at no point does it feel slow-paced or meandering. The book is brimming with high-stakes tension right in the middle of it all, and readers will find themselves unable to put the book down until they find out what happens next.
Jane Delury is the author of The Balcony, a novel-in-stories, which won the Sue Kaufman Prize for First Fiction from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. Her short stories have appeared in Granta, The Sewanee Review, The Southern Review, The Yale Review, Glimmer Train, Narrative and other publications. Her awards include a PEN/O. Henry Prize, a Pushcart Special Mention and grants from the Maryland State Arts Council. Her essays have appeared in Real Simple, Oprah.com, LitHub and Poets and Writers. She holds a BA in English and French literature from UC Santa Cruz, a maîtrise from the University of Grenoble, and an MA from the Johns Hopkins Writing Seminars. A professor at the University of Baltimore, she teaches in the MFA in Creative Writing & Publishing Arts and directs the BA in English. She lives in Baltimore with her daughters and her partner, the writer Don Lee.
