Ben and his wife had been drifting apart for a long time before she asked him to get rid of the lost robot that appeared in their back garden. When he brings it inside and starts to spend all his time with it she sees his obsession with the unique little robot as just another way of escaping his responsibilities. Since his parents death in a tragic plane accident his life has stayed on hold. He lives in their old family home, unchanged from his childhood days and never returned to his veterinary training as had been the plan.
As he spends more and more time trying to figure out where the lost little robot comes from, his wife drifts further away, eventually leaving him. As she goes, Ben also realises the little robot he has come to know as Tang has a crack and one of his fluid levels is dropping. Panicked by what it may mean he surprises everyone he knows by leaving his safe little world behind and heading to the USA to save his new friend.
I wasn’t sure quite what to expect from A Robot in the Garden, it’s one of those unique little stories that doesn’t quite fit in any genre, which is probably another reason why I really loved it. Ben is a man simply stuck in his grief, who has forgotten how to communicate and on this weird and wonderful journey he takes to fix Tang, he manages to piece himself back together again too. Tang is a cute yet stroppy little character you warm to incredibly quickly as he slowly becomes the child Ben never had. For a fun, light summer read you really need look no further than A Robot in the Garden.
Buy your copy of A Robot in the Garden from Amazon here.