A Month In The Country by J. L. Carr

A Month In The Country is considered the masterwork of English novelist J.L. Carr. It won the Guardian Fiction Prize and was one of his two titles shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Writing it in 1980, it's quite an achievement in place and tone, reading like a classic of the time when its set.

The month is August, and young Tom Birkin has travelled up North to Oxgodby, a lonely Yorkshire village. A deceased church member has willed a sum to restore a painted over mural above the chancel arch, most likely a Judgement scene. Living in the belfry, and working high atop a scaffold, Tom has plenty of time to contemplate his recent time in the Great War, his broken marriage. Charles Moon, also a veteran, has been commissioned by the deceased to discover the unmarked grave of her ancestor, buried on church grounds in 1373. Both men proceed separately at a relaxed pace, while the rail master's daughter and the Vicar's wife visit to chat. Over the month, Birkin visits local families for meals, attend the Sunday fair and get roped in to substitute preaching for a smaller church. Gradually, the mural is restored, and Tom falls in love with the skill of the anonymous painter, his friendship with Charles, and perhaps with the Vicar's wife.

Carr meant this as an easy going, rural idyll - the kind of setting where "bees foraging from flower to flower seem to deepen the stillness". It's a portrait where simple people singing hymns and a solitary pursuit can quell past demons of the trenches.

In 1987, this was made into a film starring Kenneth Branagh, Jeremy Irons and Natasha Richardson.

1980 / Tradeback / 135 pages