Surprise, surprise! The last week of the How to Read a Novel course focuses on setting and the examples come from “A country road. A Tree” by Jo Baker. I loved the excerpts, later discovering she was a woman and English, so I was not prejudiced in her favour.
The book is a reconstruction of the life of Samuel Beckett when he was in the war. The language is vivid and precise. No strange experiments to confuse you. I really hope she wins the prize. She has obviously contributed with her studies, a lot of research, experience of the places and a lot of imagination. This work cannot be autobiographical as she was not there during the war, but it is full of empathy for the people involved. This is fiction at its best.
I would like to upload a video of an interview with Jo Baker but am told it’s too big for this site. However, they may put it on youtube later. I did find one about her previous book, apparently parallel to Jane Austen’s novels, called Longbourn, which I must read soon as it is being made into a film and I prefer to read the book first.
Longbourn House https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tXGWVhN_H0g