Tim Pears. In The Place of Fallen Leaves. London: Hamish Hamilton, 1993

A novel beautifully written from the perspective of a teenage girl in rural Devon. Observations of the people around her, the farm and the countryside during one long, hot summer, are perceptive, intuitive, acute and touching and Pears captures the subtleties and sensitivities of a range of characters with apparent effortlessness. To read about them is to know them. He describes the forebearance of disappointed women, gives them the dignity of acceptance, and elicits understanding rather than sympathy. To pity these women would be to diminish their resolution and fortitude.

He writes the Rector particularly well; gets inside his head, and gives the reader a wonderful sense of the man’s thoughts and his wisdom. He achieves this by writing the narrative about simple scenes and straightforward people with a mature eloquence, and peppering the narrative with short pieces of dialect which brings life and expression to the characters.

The reader sees the story unfold through Alison’s unsophisticated eyes but with the language of experience and compassion. There are scenes described when Alison is not present so, in these instances, an omniscient narrator takes over. The effect overall is a sensitive, meditative novel written, with great affection which allows the reader to fully inhabit the world of the story, and to grow fond of these people, such that it is a shame to reach the end, to leave them behind, and to close the book on the valley.

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