The Weeds by Katy Simpson Smith

This book is beautifully written, almost poetic, and it is also beautifully illustrated, making the weeds come to life. The book takes place in the Roman Colosseum, which is full of wonders and history and secrets—and plants. Observing, cataloging and communicating with these plants is the heart of this novel, as the narrative connects two women across time who are both performing these archival acts. Set in 1854 and 2018, the book moves between the voices of these two women, interlocking their lives as they document the presence of (or absence of) plants. In 1854, a woman was caught stealing, and her misbehavior has led to her being indentured to English botanist Richard Deakin; he sends her into the Colosseum to catalog the flora and their uses. She also tells her own story and meditates on the ways that society impinges upon her selfhood. She speaks to her missing love, a woman who is off on a boat, now married to a man. In 2018, a woman has run from the entrapment of her life, but she finds herself newly hemmed in as she seeks the plants on Deakin’s list, makes notes, begrudges the presence of tourists and wonders what her next step might be. What will she be allowed? The novel shifts between these centuries and women. They mirror parts of each other; they both encounter violence at many turns and scales, and each reacts to the ways their voices and choices are constrained in their societies. The plants around them produce their own forms of tension and stories--it is a well constructed story well told.