This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's

imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead,

business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over

and does not assume responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

Copyright © 2007 by Mark Mills.

"Readers Guide" copyright © 2008 by Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

Text design by Meighan Cavanaugh.

All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission.

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BERKLEY® is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.

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The Library of Congress has catalogued the G. P. Putnam's Sons hardcover edition of this book as follows:

Mills, Mark, date.

The savage garden / Mark Mills.

p. cm.

ISBN: 1-4362-1508-0

1. College teachers—Fiction. 2. College students—Fiction. 3. England—Fiction. 4. Italy—Fiction.

5. College stories. I. Title.

Acknowledgments

My thanks, as ever, go to my inimitable agent and friend Stephanie Cabot for—well—being Stephanie Cabot;

to my editors Julia Wisdom and

Rachel Kahan for their enthusiasm, wisdom and guidance; and to my

wife, Caroline, for her tireless patience and encouragement.

I am also extremely grateful to Francis and Rachel Hamel-Cooke,

Anne O'Brien and Jane Hall, as well as Charles and Angela Cottrell- Dormer,