Tree surgery for beginners - Patrick Gale

A vivid and compelling portrait of a man at odds with himself; and an extended family of friends and lovers trying to take its proper shape.

Lawrence Frost has neither father nor siblings, and fits so awkwardly into his worldly mother's life he might have dropped from the sky. Like many such heroes, he grows up happier with plants than people. While he is straightforward, honest, and a doting dad, he can be a difficult, taciturn husband - but he's the last person one would suspect of being a killer.

Waking one morning to find himself branded a wife-beater and under suspicion of murder, his small world falls apart as he loses wife, daughter, liberty, livelihood and, almost, his mind.