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  • Published: 3 April 2017
  • ISBN: 9780552779524
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $27.99
Categories:

A Country Road, A Tree

Shortlisted for the Walter Scott Memorial Prize for Historical Fiction




Jo Baker, Sunday Times bestselling author of LONGBOURN, goes behind the scenes again with the life and loves of a twentieth century literary icon.

BY THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LONGBOURN

SHORTLISTED FOR THE WALTER SCOTT PRIZE FOR HISTORICAL FICTION 2017

SHORTLISTED FOR THE JAMES TAIT BLACK PRIZE 2017

'Skilful . . . daring . . . extraordinary' The Guardian

'A fascinating fictional account of Samuel Beckett's wartime years' IAN RANKIN
'Beautifully written, empathetic and unflinching, it is very, very good' Daily Mail

'Marvellous, spare, moving' FRANCIS SPUFFORD

'Insightful . . . beautifully paced . . . authentic' The Irish Times

Paris, 1939: The pavement rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs Elysees. A young writer, recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon, he will put is own life and those of his loved ones in mortal danger by joining the Resistance...

Spies, artists, deprivation, danger and passion: this is a story of life at the edges of human experience, and of how one man came to translate it all into art.

Sunday Express Book of the Month

Praise for Jo Baker's LONGBOURN:
'Intoxicating' Guardian
'Engrossing' Sunday Times
'Audacious' New York Times

  • Published: 3 April 2017
  • ISBN: 9780552779524
  • Imprint: Black Swan
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 400
  • RRP: $27.99
Categories:

About the author

Jo Baker

JO BAKER is the author of the acclaimed and bestselling LONGBOURN and A COUNTRY ROAD, A TREE. Her new novel, THE BODY LIES, is a thrilling contemporary novel that explores violence against women in fiction but is also a disarming story of sexual politics. Jo Baker lives with her family in Lancashire.

Also by Jo Baker

See all

Praise for A Country Road, A Tree

In this worthy successor to Longbourn, she [Baker] skillfully captures Beckett’s world, the rhythms of his bare-bones prose, and the edginess of his point of view.

Publishers Weekly

Taking its title from Beckett's most famous play, Waiting for Godot, Baker's historical drama deftly explores the psyche of one of the greatest writers of the Twentieth Century.

Booklist

Perfectly captures the deprivation, despair and constant creeping fear of an occupied people.

Red Magazine Must-Read of the Month

This exquisitely crafted novel re-creates the World War II peregrinations of Samuel Beckett and the volatile Frenchwoman who became his life's companion

Oprah Magazine

Insightful . . . beautifully paced . . . authentic

The Irish Times

Skilful . . . daring . . . an extraordinary story

The Guardian

Beautifully written, empathetic and unflinching, it is very, very good

Daily Mail

[It is] the unexpected Beckett that is on show here. Baker pays tribute to a man who joined the French Resistance, narrowly escaped the Gestapo, fled south on foot and went into hiding, and was eventually awarded the Croix de Guerre

The Times

vivid and well-wrought

Times Literary Supplement

‘Baker . . . creates a compellingly real experience out of Beckett’s work in the French underground . . . Her writing is assured and often intense . . . enthralling.’

The Santa Fe New Mexican

A fascinating fictional account of Samuel Beckett's wartime years

IAN RANKIN