"Written in the form of a journal written by a solitary man on a secluded Somerset estate. Ostensibly a nature diary, chronicling the narrator's interest in the localflora and fauna and the passing of the seasons, Ash before Oak is also the story of a breakdown told slantwise, and of the narrator's subsequent recovery through his re-engagement with the world around him, including a vist to his sister in New Zealand. The title derives from an oldcountry rhyme forecasting rain. Written in prose that is as precise as it is beautiful, Jeremy Cooper's first novel in over a decade is a stunning investigation of the fragility, beauty and strangeness of life."--Publisher.
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