The Garden

The Garden is about Carl Linnaeus, a leading figure in the Swedish Enlightenment, famous for his taxonomy — a classification of animals and plants that is still used in modern biology. Linnaeus perceives things through his desire to categorise and therefore in relation to other things. His gardener perceives things for what they are in themselves — and for their beauty or usefulness. They often find themselves in dialogue, but rarely understand each other. We observe Linnaeus alone in thought, or teaching and conversing with his students, or tending to his poorly siblings. Florin draws us into these impressionistic fragments with brave, colourful prose. The Garden blossoms into a work of imagination and intrigue, unafraid to question the shape of our world and the roots of existence. This strange, ambitious novel is the first English translation of Magnus Florin’s work; it became a bestseller in his native Sweden.