Now you can read the first ten pages of Paradise Lot: “Germination” at Scribd.

“Few gardeners would have looked out at the small, flat expanse of compacted land and thought, “It’s perfect!” The front yard was a short, steep slope of asphalt with a tiny strip of sterile gravel and sand subsoil. Two shady side alleys led to a backyard that looked like a moonscape, sparsely populated with tufts of crabgrass. Two large Norway maples, reviled as weeds that poison anything growing beneath them, hung over the garden from the north side. And the house itself was soulless, all straight lines, devoid of personality. It was exactly what we were hoping for…”