7.4 /10 1 Votes
Cover artist Emma Parker Publication date 1993 (UK), 1995 (US) Pages 320 Genre Fiction | 3.7/5 Goodreads Language English Media type Print Originally published 1993 Page count 320 Country United Kingdom | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Publisher Hamish Hamilton (UK)
Donald I Fine (US) Similar In a land of plenty, A Revolution of the Sun, Blenheim Orchard, Landed, The Horseman | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
In the Place of Fallen Leaves is Tim Pears' debut novel, published in 1993. It won the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award in 1993 and the Hawthornden Prize in 1994.
Contents
Inspiration
On his website, Tim Pears reveals that the novel is set in the Devon village where he grew up (Trusham on the edge of Dartmoor) He had written many 'appalling' poems in his twenties then adapted one into a story; this liberated him and he never wrote another poem; just stories which eventually became this, his first novel. He cites his other influences as Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s One Hundred Years of Solitude, Marc Chagall’s paintings of the Russian Pale, Mikhail Sholokhov’s tales of Don Cossacks, and New Zealander Vincent Ward’s film Vigil.
Plot introduction
It is set in the long, hot summer of 1984 in an isolated Devon village on the edge of Dartmoor where thirteen-year-old Alison is growing up, the youngest member of a farming family. The story covers scenes from Alison's own life as well as those of her neighbours, siblings, parents and grandparents.