About the Book

Ella Valter is an eccentric elderly lady who collects discarded houseplants.
Renate Grünberg is the editor in chief of a family magazine who looks for little wonders in mundane circumstances.
Joonatan Klaassen is a young photographer who is trying to overcome a long-lost love.
Fortune brings them together.

The Garden of Devil's Milks is a book about intimacy, the fragility of it, and an eternal yearning, that shapes lives. The story of three vivid characters searches for bonds between vastly different people with varied world views and peculiar understandings of life. Raud’s ironical outlook mixes quaintly with a sort of poetic brightness that shines even on the story’s bleakest episodes.

"According to the text on the back cover of Piret Raud’s novel The Garden of Devil’s Milks, this is “a book about intimacy, the fragility of it, and an eternal yearning that shapes lives”. This phrase really could sum up the whole book. But how does Raud do it? She tells us the stories of three people. They are gripping, realistic and profoundly human; with their joys, worries and frailties. Raud creates characters in whom we can recognize ourselves or people we know. Reading her is just like sitting in a café with a friend and them wanting to tell you a story; Raud is that friend."
Estonian Literary Magazine

Awards

2020 A. H. Tammsaare Literary Award