A literate, funny, and surprisingly bittersweet debut from a writer with a sharp wit and a green thumb. This rather deceptive work purports to be the collected horticultural columns of one opinionated Mertensia Corydalis, a woman genteel as a rose and just as prickly. As Mertensia answers her readers’ innocent gardening questions, she reveals more than she intends about her life, her relationships (from volleys with her celebrity gardener ex-husband to questionable interactions with her employees, Miss Vong and Tran), and her own precarious state of mind. But be warned—Miss Mertensia does not entertain questions about lawn care. Though RADICAL PRUNINGS is often laugh-out-loud funny, Bonnie Thomas Abbott’s love for gardening is serious. Her characters immerse themselves in the sensual pleasures of growing things— the earthy sensation of wet dirt between the fingers, the beauty of soil clinging to a freshly dug radish, the anticipation of a blossom slowly unfolding—even when other aspects of their lives have gone to seed.