Terah Shelton Harris, the acclaimed author of ONE SUMMER IN SAVANNAH and LONG AFTER WE ARE GONE, returns with her most beautiful, tender and affirming novel yet. WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW is a story about survival, redemption and the power of nature to heal.

Born to a toxic but beautiful family, Leandra “Leigh” Wilde is now the very last of the Wildes. She knows this because she has watched them all die. Her mentally ill father, dedicated to a life off the grid, educated his daughters in the skills of survival --- fire building, fishing, the resourcefulness that teaches a girl she can make a fishing rod with a can of Coke and a scrap of fabric --- but his steadfast avoidance of the government has made it so that Leigh practically doesn’t exist: no birth certificate, no education, no way up and out of the hardscrabble poverty she was born into.

On the day we meet Leigh, the prison transport bus that is taking her to a different prison has just crashed into a ravine, and she is the sole survivor. Knowing that the wreckage will be discovered sooner or later, but that she may evade capture if she keeps her head down, she hops a bus to anywhere.

Anywhere comes fast when the bus experiences a malfunction, and Leigh finds herself unceremoniously deposited in Camden, Alabama. A dead-end town boasting a campground, a town hall, a library and not much else, Camden seems like the kind of place where Leigh can disappear, at least long enough to save some money. When a kindly campground owner takes pity on her and offers her a job and room and board, Leigh once again kicks into survival mode: work hard, don’t attract attention, and save, save, save. But small-town Camden, while remote, is also familiar --- the kind of place where everyone knows everyone and their people --- and she is well aware that she cannot put down roots, not while she is still technically on the run.

"WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW is a gorgeous, tremendously balanced and measured novel.... If you’re feeling wounded, depleted or in need of hope, you’ll find it here, where the wildflowers of Harris’ mind not only grow, but nourish."

When a chance encounter introduces Leigh to Jackson Shepherd --- owner of the Flower Farm, an expansive floral haven located in Gee’s Bend, an isolated community surrounded by water on three sides and accessible mainly by ferry --- opportunity strikes again. Unbeknownst to Leigh, Jackson also has a dark, storied past. When the two lock eyes, they recognize something unnameable in each other.

When Jackson offers Leigh a job on the farm, he isn’t just offering her financial security. Because he has big plans to expand his business and put Camden back on the map in industry and tourism, hiring Leigh is a commitment for both of them. On top of that, Jackson treats his business and employees like a family, with mandatory dinners, frequent reminders to rest and recharge, and, above all, a promise of safety. It’s an alluring offer for a girl on the run, but it comes with a major drawback. Jackson is dedicated to breaking down and rebuilding walls, and Leigh cannot afford to risk exposing any part of her past.

Rounding out Jackson’s crew are Luke and Tibb, gracious young men who also carry their own painful scars of dysfunctional families and abuse. Their care and compassion for one another is like a live wire for Leigh. Both a promise and a warning, this conversion of hardship provides her with a stable, steady ground where she can begin to heal (or at least start thinking about it).

But Jackson and his crew are not all that Leigh needs to find herself again. Slowly, as she tends to the ground and the bounty it harbors, she sees that just because something appears dead doesn’t mean that it is. Just because she has spent a lifetime surviving doesn’t mean she can’t remember how to live. As Jackson and Leigh (and the rest of their motley crew) start to open up and reveal themselves to each other, the darkest, most painful parts of their pasts come to light, and the real work begins.

“I started working on myself right here,” Jackson says, pointing to the ground. “In the dirt, with the dahlias.” So too does Leigh’s work begin --- not on the farm, the flowers or even her budding friendship with Jackson, but on herself, with Jackson and the Gee’s Bend community providing her not with a treatment or a cure, but with an opportunity to rest. And it is only through rest that Leigh can follow Jackson’s advice: “You have to cut back your foliage and dig up your tubers.”

But change is uneasily brewing in Gee’s Bend and Camden, with Jackson’s ambitious expansion plans threatening old-fashioned locals who fear growth, change and risk. Jackson, a man who has lost it all and regained it, is a bit too comfortable with risk, but he balances that recklessness with real passion and generosity of spirit, wisdom and industry, even when the town continues to work against him.

At the same time, Leigh learns that the wreckage of the crash that gave her a second chance has been discovered. While she is believed dead with the rest of her passengers, a beautiful girl doesn’t go undiscovered for long. Perhaps most terrifying and devastating of all, in the end it is not capture that Leigh fears most, but revelation. In plumbing the depths of her grief and beginning to put down roots for the first time, she also must reckon with the fact that her own family roots carry so much ruin and rot --- not just of bad choices, but of the lingering, generational scars of poverty, exploitation and oppression. What will it mean to share those truths with Jackson?

WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW is a gorgeous, tremendously balanced and measured novel. Readers of Terah Shelton Harris’ previous books will know that she has a knack for unpacking little-known histories and pairing them with real-world, gritty characters who have been forced to contend with far more than their fair share of hurt. I’ve yet to come across a character of hers I haven’t loved, but Leigh stands in a class of her own.

A configuration of dichotomies --- beautiful but wild, strong but hurting, lonely but fearful --- Leigh undergoes one of the most dynamic, affirming and awe-inspiring transformations I’ve ever had the pleasure of reading. What makes her journey stand out is that her metamorphosis doesn’t come in big, light-bulb moments, but in the quiet comforts of routine and acts of care. Add to this Harris’ sumptuous, vivid descriptions of flora and fauna and her lyrical prose, and you have a novel that uplifts even as it stares unflinchingly into some of the worst trauma a person can experience. It reminds us --- just like Jackson’s dahlias --- that your worth is not defined by the battles you’ve fought or the scars you carry.

Fortunately for Leigh, and for readers, WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW invites us into a place where resilience and hardship can coexist and where communities can be revitalized to champion the nature that protects and sustains them, forcing healing in the most unlikely of places. If you’re feeling wounded, depleted or in need of hope, you’ll find it here, where the wildflowers of Harris’ mind not only grow, but nourish.