The Garden Just Beyond

For fourteen-year-old Magnolia aka Maggie Gartner, nothing is more magical than family dinner. She’s not unique in that—anyone lucky enough to purchase a meal ticket at the Gartner’s estate in Humble Hollow, New Jersey claims the food changed their life. That’s a given when you harvest crops that purposefully alter emotions. Add in the sparkling company of an eccentric family who has hidden a centuries-old agricultural secret and you’re guaranteed a rollicking night.

Although every member of the Gartner family is exceptional, Maggie often feels like the exception. That’s going to change when Maggie cooks her first dinner and proves she’s just as Gartner as everyone else. But in the shadow of her growth, a mysterious stranger moves to town, putting the Gartners at risk of losing everything and Humble Hollow at risk of losing, well, everything else.

With the help of new kid, Graham, as well as trusty townsfolk and family folklore, Maggie must dig deep to see what others can’t, especially buried truths that feel just beyond her reach.

Devilishly absurd and heartachingly true, The Garden Just Beyond untangles themes of heritage, identity, and legacy in a tale that twists and turns until the enchanted end.