A Month in the Country

:"For the play of the same name by Ivan Turgenev see A Month in the Country (play). For the film adaptation, see A Month in the Country (film)"

"A Month in the Country" is the fourth novel by J. L. Carr, first published in 1980 and nominated for the Booker Prize. The book won the Guardian Fiction Prize in 1980.

infobox Book |
name = A Month in the Country
title_orig =
translator =


image_caption = Dust jacket of first edition - 1980
author = J.L. Carr
illustrator =
cover_artist =
country = United Kingdom
language = English
series =
genre = Fiction
publisher = Harvester Press
release_date = 1980
english_release_date =
media_type = Print (Hardback
pages = 111
isbn = 0855273283
preceded_by = How Steeple Sinderby Wanderers Won the F.A. Cup
followed_by = The Battle of Pollocks Crossing

The plot concerns a World War I veteran employed to uncover a mural in a village church that was thought to exist under coats of whitewash. At the same time another veteran is employed to look for a grave beyond the churchyard walls. There is prevalent religious symbolism throughout the book, mainly dealing with judgment.

Many of the incidents in the novel are based on real events in Carr's own life, and some of the characters are modelled on his own Methodist family.

The novel is a set book as a part of some secondary school English courses. The story was made into a 1987 film starring Colin Firth, Kenneth Branagh, Natasha Richardson and Patrick Malahide. It was adapted from the novel by Simon Gray and directed by Pat O'Connor.

Publishing history

* 1980 Harvester Press, Brighton (reprinted 1981, 1982) ISBN 0855273283
* 1980 Penguin Books (reprinted nine times) ISBN 0140058621
* 1983 St Martin's Press, New York (USA) ISBN 0312546807 (copyright date 1980, published July 1983)
* 1984 Academy Chicago Publishers (USA) ISBN 0897331249
* 1987 Penguin Books ISBN 014010559X
* 1985 Penguin Books ISBN 0140058621
* 1988 ISIS Large Print Books ISBN 1850892539
* 1990 Cornucopia Press (signed edition limited to 300 copies)
* 1991 The Quince Tree Press ISBN 0900847921
* 1992 "Un mois à la campagne" Actes Sud, Arles (French) ISBN 978-2-8686-9854-4
* 1992 William a Thomas Braille, Braille edition, ISBN 1569562857
* 1996 "Een maand in de provincie" Veen, Utrecht/Antwerp (Dutch)
* 1999 The Folio Society, illustrated by Ian Stephens
* 1999 "Pasion en el campo" Andres Bello (Spanish)
* 2000 Penguin Classics, with an introduction by Penelope Fitzgerald, ISBN 014118230X
* 2000 New York Review of Books Classics (USA) ISBN 0940322471
* 2003 Ulverscroft Large Print Books
* 2003 The Quince Tree Press
* 2004 "Un mes en el campo" Pre-Textos, Valencia (Spanish)
* 2005 "Un mese in campagna" Fazi, Italy (Italian)

External links

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