A Month in the Country, though a tiny book, took me a couple of weeks to read, because once I'd been introduced to the slow leisurely pace I found I didn't want to read more than a few pages at a time. Quite like our main character, I wanted to savour my time in the idyllic Oxgodby, enjoying every beautiful description of nature and amusing interaction with the residents.

I found the way the novel deals with the relationships between war, religion, and trauma to be fascinating, especially paired with the healing that the main character goes through once exposed to the countryside in Oxgodby. One of my favourite parts of the novel was the ways in which Birkin elaborates on his unbelief in God, stating that God can't exist because of the horrors he witnessed during the first World War, and Hell essentially has no meaning because his experiences with war were a kind of Hell. This is also interesting when compared with Keach's view, which is that Birkin's experiences are at the 'heart of religion'.

There's so much to love about this novel, but what really sold me on it was the fact that it made me tear up during the last page. I love a book with a good last paragraph, and one that makes me feel strong emotions along with that always ranks highly and stays in my memory. This is certainly one that I want to reread multiple times in the future, and one that I think I will continue to get wisdom out of.

"We can ask and ask but we can't have again what once seemed ours for ever - the way things looked, that church alone in the fields, a bed on a belfry floor, a remembered voice, the touch of a hand, a loved face. They've gone and you can only wait for the pain to pass."