"This book will find readers as long as people tell each other stories about love and death." - Denis Scheck, hot off the press

Summer 1920 in Oxgodby, northern England: When a Londoner gets off the train at the train station, the whole village immediately knows he is the restorer who is supposed to uncover the medieval wall painting in the local church.  But what is behind the facade of the man who stutters and suffers from chronic facial twitches?  Tom Birkin fought in the First World War and was abandoned by his wife as a traumatized veteran.  He hopes to heal in the peace and simplicity of Yorkshire.  And in fact: the closer he gets to the masterpiece behind the church ceiling, the closer he comes to himself.  And to his fellow human beings.  He slowly manages to open up to the world around him, perhaps even to love. The month in the country is a month of healing.  What Birkin experiences here he will carry with him for the rest of his life...

JL Carr tells of a man who survives and of the salvation that lies within us as well as others.  This modern classic of English literature is a real rediscovery in its linguistic lightness and elegance.