A Country Road, A Tree by Jo Baker

A Country Road, A Tree

Jo Baker

A fictionalised version of Irish author Samuel Becket's time spent in France during WW2 and his activities with the Resistance. The writing is very quiet and powerful with minimal emphasis on the action which seems to mirror Becket's character perfectly. Some horrific scenes of the devastation and retribution of war – but at the same time, beautifully atmospheric. I loved it.

Extract
This is money that should be used to pay for the room, but he doesn't have enough to pay for the room and so it hardly seems to matter if he dispenses with the little he has in dribs and drabs. Food. Shelter. Money. Shelter. Food. Money. It's all so simple and yet so unresolvable, and he is frowning over it, as though there were some obvious solution that he had missed, ....
Parallels
  • Ignorance by Michele Roberts
  • Charlotte Gray by Sebastian Faulks