the gardener's year

The gardener’s year combines a richly comic portrait of life in the garden, narrated month by month, with a series of delightful illustrations by the author’s older brother and collaborator, josef. capek’s gardeners—all too human, despite their lofty aspirations—often look the fool, whether they be found sopping wet, victims of the cobralike water hose, or hunched over, hands immersed in the soil, “presenting their rumps to the splendid azure sky.” in their repeated folly, capek gives us not only cause for laughter but also, in the end, “testimony of the imperishable and miraculous optimism of the human race.