Freedom at midnight

In J.L. Carr’s tale of survival and healing, a damaged veteran rediscovers the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War. "Carr is by no means a lavish writer, but he has the magic touch to re-enter the imagined past" (Penelope Fitzgerald).In the summer of 1920 two men meet in the quiet English countryside. One is a war survivor, living in a church, intent upon uncovering and restoring a historical wall painting. The other, too, is a war survivor, camping in the next field in search of a lost grave. Living in the bell tower, surrounded by the resplendent countryside of high summer, and labouring each day to uncover an anonymous painter's depiction of the apocalypse, Birkin finds that he himself has been restored to a new, and hopeful, attachment to life. But summer ends, and with the work done, Birkin must leave. Now, long after, as he reflects on the passage of time and the power of art, he finds in his memories some consolation for all that has been lost."It's true that there aren't many quiet novels in the canon of great literature. A few are famous — Virginia Woolf's Mrs Dalloway, for instance — but most are not. One of the rarest gems among these is J.L. Carr's tiny masterpiece, A Month in the Country." - Jesse Browner, NPRJ.L. Carr started writing full-time relatively late in life, at the age of 55. In 1967, having already written two novels, Carr retired from his job as a teacher to devote himself to writing. His novel A Month in the Country won the Guardian Fiction Prize, was shortlisted for the 1980 Booker Prize, and was made into a memorable film. 'Tender and elegant' Guardian 'Unlike anything else in modern English literature' D.J. Taylor, Spectator A damaged survivor of the First World War, Tom Birkin finds refuge in the quiet village church of Oxgodby where he is to spend the summer uncovering a huge medieval wall-painting. Immersed in the peace and beauty of the countryside and the unchanging rhythms of village life he experiences a sense of renewal and belief in the future. Now an old man, Birkin looks back on the idyllic summer of 1920, remembering a vanished place of blissful calm, untouched by change, a precious moment he has carried with him through the disappointments of the years. Adapted into a film starring Colin Firth, Natasha Richardson and Kenneth Branagh, A Month in the Country traces the slow revival of the primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War. With an introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald In the summer of 1920 two men, both war survivors meet in the quiet English countryside. One is living in the church, intent upon uncovering and restoring an historical wall painting while the other camps in the next field in search of a lost grave.Out of their meeting comes a deeper communion and a catching up of the old primeval rhythms of life so cruelly disorientated by the Great War.