A Novel
Nicole Sumrall
"A modern love story, a modern tragedy, a fate worse than death."
"A tender, perceptive novel about the distance between where we are and where we thought we'd be — and the people who make us rethink the difference."
— [Add review source here]
About the Book
Natasha tells the story of the weekend she met Michael, and narrates their relationship journey. She explores her anxieties, her frustrations, her love, and her grief.
Natasha is rooted in the present — in what is real and immediate and already here. Always building, striving for a future that she could build with her two hands. Michael is creating a timeline and a plan and is focused on specific outcomes. When one person is building the present, and the other is focusing on the future, are they really building anything if they're never building at the same time? Can you move on from the tragedy of when your future disappears, leaving behind more questions than answers?
The Greenhouse is a novel that begins with the unfolding of a love story that gently flows, but becomes an uncontrolable torrent of anxiety and emotions.
An Excerpt
Chapter One
This isn't a story with a happy ending. Or maybe it is, I'm not sure. I'm not sure I can confidently say that this story even has an ending. I thought I was living with it, with loss, with grief, but maybe this is still the thick of it.
When we were together, he said his mother had talked about her life being before she met his father, Tedd. She said there was, "B.T." that was, "Before Tedd", and, "After Tedd". And he said the same thing about me.
"There is life B.N., Before Natasha, and A.N., After Natasha", he said with such confidence that I'd nearly believed that his life had really started when we met.
Maybe it did.
I don't think I'll ever really know.
Chapter Twelve
I wanted to build something. I had the tools, the skills, the desire.
He had a set of instructions and a YouTube tutorial.
It was just like the greenhouse.
From The Greenhouse by Nicole Sumrall. All rights reserved.
The Characters
Natasha
The Builder
Someone who has learned to live inside the moment — not because she gave up on the future, but because she learned to build it herself. She meets the world as it is, with an open mind and a heart open to love.
Michael
The Architect
A person of plans, of solutions, of futures sketched out in careful detail. He is not a dreamer — he is an architect. What he hasn't accounted for is the possibility that the most important things don't arrive as imagined or as scheduled.
Ben
The Bystandard
Ever present but never a third-wheel, a witness to beginnings and endings, the bystandard has a front row seat to a story that they thought would never end. He is witness to a love story that unfolds at its own pace.
For Book Clubs
A Few Questions to Begin
The novel opens with a chance meeting the narrator was looking for. Do you believe in meaningful coincidence, or do you think we find the people we're ready for — in whatever form the opportunity takes?
One character is anchored in the present; the other is always building toward a future. Have you ever been on one side of that divide in a relationship? What did it cost you — or give you?
The title, The Greenhouse, suggests a place of controlled growth — shelter and cultivation, but is described as being built and repaired. What ways does that apply to the relationship at the center of the novel?
What does it mean to "balance living in the present and building the future"? Do you think that balance is possible, or does one always edge the other out?
By the end of the novel, do you think each character could have given up — or accepted change — to meet somewhere in the middle?
Available Now
Available in paperback for now.