Tree Surgery for Beginners
A character-filled novel of empathy, understanding and humour
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- $12.99
Publisher Description
From the bestselling author Patrick Gale, comes an early novel of love, lies and the secrets we live with
'A very funny, often sad, novel writ with style' Time Out
'Excellent' The Times
Lawrence Frost has neither father nor siblings, and fits awkwardly into life, happier communing with nature than with people. When he wakes up one morning to discover his wife and child have gone missing, there is evidence to suggest he may be the main suspect in a murder investigation.
Confused and threatened with the loss of everything he loves, Lawrence is sent to the Caribbean on a kill-or-cure cruise. On board and ashore, he discovers love, deceit, the truth about his missing family, and the blessings that come with surrendering to destiny.
Tree Surgery for Beginners is a vivid and engaging portrait of a man at odds with himself.
What readers say about Tree Surgery for Beginners:
'His characters are so skilfully painted and human. You need to know what happens to them. This book approaches the human conditions of love, loss and redemption with sympathy, empathy and humour' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
'As with all Patrick Gale's books there is tremendous characterisation, the reader almost feels that they are reading about people that they know, that they are involved in the events unfolding in the story' ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A curious transatlantic pastoral about a shadowy woodcutter accused of murdering his wife, English author Gale's eighth novel (after Cat Sanctuary) repays careful reading with its themes of organic growth, dismemberment and integration, culminating in a healing denouement. Lawrence Frost, raised in the British cathedral town of Barrowcester by his single mother, grows up as a solitary child who prefers the company of trees to people. He finally finds happiness with landscape gardener Bonnie and their baby daughter, Lucy. But on evidence of her affair with American architect Craig McBride, he abuses Bonnie so severely that one evening she disappears. Unknown to Lawrence, she has fled to America. When a gruesomely battered body--presumably Bonnie's--is found in the nearby woods, Lawrence is accused of murder. Although he is soon exonerated (the identity of the murdered woman will provide a shock later in the story), Lawrence has a breakdown and knows he must move on to stay sane. Aboard a ship to the Caribbean and in his later wanderings on the way to Northern California, he meets a mysterious older woman who alternates identities: she is variously torch singer Lala and heiress Serena Merle. Despite the jolt of the initial murder descriptions, Gale's story develops with such subtlety that the workings of Lawrence's healing process must be taken on faith. Gale fashions a patient, worthy transformation as Lawrence develops from a boy who does not understand his whole self (especially the violent extremes) to a man whose work as a tree surgeon is a metaphor for the growth of his soul and his family.
