1993 novel by Tim Pears
In the Place of Fallen Leaves is Tim Pears's debut novel, published in 1993. It won the Ruth Hadden Memorial Award in 1993 and the Hawthornden Prize in 1994.
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 García Márquez’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.
References.
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