Flowers of war

When the author is given a small package, containing letters and papers relating to his grandfather's brother, who was killed in Syria during the Second World War, it leads him on an extended personal journey. An exploration of history, imagination and the process of memory, shifting imperceptibly from autobiography to travelogue, from letters and diaries to official records, from text to visual image.

In his first prose work Lewis reveals a rare and consummate literary talent. Deeply rooted in his Welsh identity, this young writer locates his own and his family's experience within the wider European world in a thoughtful, mature and highly original book.

Flowers of War is a translation of Rhyw Flodau Rhyfel (Y Lolfa, 2014), which won the Creative Non-Fiction category in the 2015 Wales Book of the Year award.