A widow, a rock star, a would be novellist and her anxious teenage daughter - these are among the strangers that Isa Pearl Ritchie beings together in new novel, The Seekers' Garden. Different paths have led them all to Waikato from around the country and the world. One of them is the widowed Marcia Reed-Wilton who leaves England to return her the childhood home that she escaped from as a teenager. She is anxious to reconnect with her estranged sister. Lynn Freeman asks Isa which came first - the characters, the situation or the theme? The Seekers' Garden by Isa Pearl Ritchie is published by Te Ra Aroha Press.