Novels may be destined to be read with one hand – but not, it seems, with one handbook. Blackwell, historically the most fecund press in this area, has published a new companion to sit alongside the comparable examples produced by Brill and Cambridge University Press. With 37 chapters and nearly 600 pages of text, however, this new volume edited by Edmund Cueva and Shannon Byrne is the heftiest example of the genre yet. There is no obvious editorial agenda; rather, the four sections intersect and overlap, like the beds of an ancient country garden. There is a refreshing vitality to the volume as a whole; and while there are certainly some weeds, there are unexpected delights hiding in the foliage too.