A New Statesman Book of the Year

‘My book of the year . . . Rarely has illness made for such a compelling read’ – John Boyne, author of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas

‘Marvelous: exceptionally vivid, real, and true’ – Colm Tóibín, author of Long Island

‘Fundamentally about the beauty of life’ – Alice Winn, author of In Memoriam

‘Exquisite. Utterly mesmerizing’ - Mark Haddon, author of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

‘A fierce beautiful novel’ - Sarah Moss, author of Summerwater

‘Beautiful, evocative’ – The Times

A medical crisis brings a man close to death – and to love, art, and beauty – in a profound and luminous novel by award-winning author Garth Greenwell.

The life of a poet is upended by a sudden and painful ache. The pain brings him to his knees and eventually to the ICU. Trapped in bed, immersed in a dysfunctional healthcare system, he tries to comprehend what is happening to him, as someone who has lived many years in his mind.

This is a profound, sweeping novel set at the farthest reaches of human experience, where the forces that give life value – art, memory, poetry, music, care – are thrown into sharp relief. Time expands and contracts. Sudden intimacies bloom. Small Rain emerges beyond the hospital, enveloping a radiant vision of human life: our shared vulnerability, the limits and possibilities of empathy, the ideal of art, and the fragile dream of America. Above all, this is a love story of the most unexpected form.

‘A classic, a dawn serenade, a small miracle of demanding joy. I will reread it all my life’ - Kaveh Akbar, author of Martyr!

Pages: 320, Year of Publication: 1231, Dimensions: 14.6x14.6cm