Griefwork

Griefwork, James Hamilton-Paterson's third novel, was first published in 1993.'This book had its genesis in a vivid dream about a Holland-like landscape of dykes which caused me to catch the next plane to Amsterdam. The story is set in the tropical palm house of a botanical garden - possibly in the Netherlands - just after the Second World War. Its single-minded and distinctly odd curator, Leon, has brought his precious ark of exotic plants safely through the war but is now struggling amid the snows of winter to keep its boilers going in fuel-starved Europe.' James Hamilton-Paterson'Beautifully written. The author explores the tangled roots of his subject with brains and imagination, sustaining a tautness between Leon's affirmation of nature and the creeping truth that will expose its provisionality.' Observer'Hamilton-Paterson's strange and compelling novel puts down enduring roots in the reader's mind.' Sunday Times