Tree Surgery for Beginners
A vivid and compelling portrait of a man at odds with himself; and an extended family of friends and lovers trying to take its proper shape.
Lawrence Frost has neither father nor siblings, and fits so awkwardly into his worldly mother’s life he might have dropped from the sky. Like many such heroes, he grows up happier with plants than people. While he is straightforward, honest, and a doting dad, he can be a difficult, taciturn husband – but he’s the last person one would suspect of being a killer.
Waking one morning to find himself branded a wife-beater and under suspicion of murder, his small world falls apart as he loses wife, daughter, liberty, livelihood and, almost, his mind.
”'In this very fine novel Patrick Gale proves, yet again, that he is both an exceptionally acute observer of human nature and a storyteller of the first order.” - Barbara Gowdy
”'The book is one of his best: a fluently constructed narrative underpinned by excellent characterisation. Running through it all is the theme of redemption; and the hero's journey from despair to hope makes a stirring odyssey for the reader.” - Sunday Telegraph
”'Gale’s energetic novel is a carnival of events in which credible characters find themselves in incredible situations.” - Daily Telegraph
”'Gale is at his most insightful in his descriptions of character, both of individuals and of the Frost family as a whole. Tree Surgery for Beginners’ is a comic thriller in which 'family tree” - takes on new meanings.’ Observer
”'This is vintage Patrick Gale - witty, funny, poignant, and utterly absorbing.” - Patricia Duncker
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