The Colored Garden

The stories buried in a Kentucky slave cemetery cultivate a boy’s coming of age after his parents separate in this “lovely literary debut” (Library Journal).

“Bennett’s first novel is beautiful and real; impossible to put down until the final page.” —Booklist

After spending his first nine years on a US Army base in Germany, a boy named Sarge is moving with his older sister and mother to his grandparents’ Kentucky farm. It’s a strange new place, and he doesn’t understand why his father isn’t coming with them.

But soon Sarge settles in and connects to his new surroundings thanks to his eccentric grandmother, Ruth. The farm hosts a remnant from its past life as part of a tobacco plantation: a graveyard for the slaves who once worked on the land. Now the cemetery is a beautiful flower garden tended to by Ruth, and as the summer passes, she tells Sarge tales about the good souls resting there. But one grave marker tells a far different story. Kate, it reads. Born and died the same week. Budded on earth to blossom in heaven. And the baby is not all that lies buried in the garden . . .

As Sarge’s little world continues to change, so does he. Ruth’s stories become his escape, and the slaves become his heroes. He sees the adults around him differently—and he learns about family and the power of secrets.

“This novel shows how the hidden history of a family, once unearthed, can forever change a person’s view of himself and his relatives.” —The New York Times Book Review

“A highly recommended, original story. . . . Explores the human condition, past and present in a lyrical, engaging narrative.” —Midwest Book Review

“[Sarge] is as fully realized a creation as I know of in recent American fiction. . . . O. H. Bennett’s brilliant first novel strikes into the heart with exactly the force of revelation. It is wonderful writing; a wonderful debut.” —Richard Bausch, award-winning author of Peace and The Fate of Others