Image Of A Drawn Sword by Jocelyn Brooke

A lyrical, semi-autobiographical novel that follows a wistful narrator whose obsession with the natural world—especially rare orchids—becomes a refuge from the dislocations of youth and wartime. Haunted by childhood memories and recurring anxieties, he drifts between whimsical reverie and darker episodes of delusion, using botanical pursuits and recollection to try to make sense of identity, failure and longing. The book is a bittersweet meditation on memory, nostalgia and the fragile hold of the past on the present.

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