Sometimes a love affair, even of the shortest duration, can have a lasting and lingering effect upon one's soul. So it is with Marc-Andre Fillion, whose brief encounter with a neighbour seven years earlier provides the inspiration and story for The Extraordinary Garden. An expanse of parkland between their backyards is the physical separation between Marc-Andre and the woman after whom he longed for seven years, Josee. But the true divide is that both are married, with families. The obligations of being a good spouse, a good parent, a good neighbour keep them apart every bit as much as they drive them together - both have daughters in competitive diving and who attend the same school. The Extraordinary Garden is an eloquent work of fiction mining, the same vein as the works of John Cheever and John Updike.