In the Light of Morning

(Paperback)

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Description

A war novel and a love story of devastating power from one of Britain's finest writers May 1944- High above the mountains of occupied Slovenia an aeroplane drops three British parachutists - brash MP Major Jack Farwell, radio operator Sid Dixon, and young academic Lieutenant Tom Freedman. Greeted upon arrival by a group of Partisans, the men are led off into the countryside. Despite the distant crackle of gunfire, the war feels a long way off for Tom. The Partisans, too, are not what he was expecting - courageous, kind, and alluring, especially Jovan, their commander, and the hauntingly beautiful Marija. As the enemy's net begins to tighten, they find evidence of massacres, of a dark and terrible band of men pursuing them. As they stumble their way towards a final, tragic battle, so the relationships within the group begin to fray, with Tom finding himself forced to face up to his deepest, most secret desires.

Reviews

Tim Pears has made the battle zone of family life in provincial England his own fertile fictional terrainThe novel succeeds in illuminating a pivotal moment in world history, while casting a steady light back on EnglandRather like Michael Ondaatjes The English Patient, this is an intimate tale of a few individuals poised at a moment when one epoch gives way to another. -- Maya Jaggi * Guardian *
[T]he characters are beautifully and economically drawn, and he is excellent on the sights and especially the smells of the landscape the beauty even of a war-torn land. * The Times *
Brilliantly nail-biting. Tim Pears tackles the horrors and ambiguity of war with his usual deft observance, in this depiction of a largely forgotten World War II slideshow in Eastern Europe. * Daily Mail *
Superb a thought provoking, lyrical and deeply humane book * Sunday Business Post *
Pearss prose, with its sensuousness and subtlety, is a fine vehicle for the intelligent, unsentimental tale he tells. * Sunday Times *

Author Bio

Tim Pears was born in 1956. He grew up in Devon, and left school at sixteen. He has worked in a wide variety of jobs and is a graduate of the National Film and Television School. His first novel, In the Place of Fallen Leaves, won the Hawthornden Prize for Literature and the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award. His second novel, In a Land of Plenty, has been adapted for television and is now a major BBC television series. Tim Pears is the author of eight highly acclaimed novels including Landed, Disputed Land and A Revolution of the Sun.