"I've gone from someone who needed to slow down, to be present, to having no choice about it. I am slow now : I have to do things separately, giving each my full attention. But I wouldn't change it back even if I could."

This is the story of Jago Trevarno- a young man who has undergone the life-changing impact of surviving a cardiac arrest (not. heart attack - there is a difference) but also suffering brain injury. Following surgery and hospital recuperation, he goes to live with his uncle Jacob on a farm in Cornwall.

Life takes on a familiar routine that helps Jago navigate the day. Small details about events add to the understanding of how a daily rhythm or pattern is key for Jago- breakfast rituals; helping on the farm.

Life is jolted by the emergence of Bill Sligo - owner of a neighbouring farm. Jago sees him on his uncle's land at different times of day and begins to piece together something sinister. that could alter the equilibrium of life.

Patrick Charnley openly informs us at the start of the novel that he has undergone the life-changing experience of brain trauma and he has used his experiences to narrate the story. Written from the first person perspective of Jago, this very much feels that the author's voice is evident.

In many ways, despite the dramatic denouement, this is a very gentle read- a slightly 'old-fashioned' quality - but that is not a negative. Following the pace of Jago's world on the farm, as a reader you find yourself slowing down and focussing on each moment- the details about mealtimes hypnotised. The inclusion of Granny Carne and Sophie add further depth to understanding how Jago interacts and communicates with friends whether it be talking about the past or dealing with the unfolding drama in the story.

This is a book that educates as much as telling a story.

Ultimately, it is the sense of location and being in the moment are what permeate through this gentle read.

The son of the much-missed Helen Dunmore, one of my favourite authors, Patrick Charnley prefaces his debut with a sobering Author’s Note telling his readers that while this is a novel, the narrator’s cardiac arrest and consequent brain injury echo his own experience.

Jago grew up in St Ives, raised by his mother after his father deserted her. She was just forty-six when she died, leaving her nineteen-year-old son so bereft the only way to accommodate his grief was to go, leaving his beloved girlfriend behind. Just a few years later, Jago collapsed, coming close to death and lapsing into a coma which left him with a brain injury. Convalescing back in Cornwall, Jago spends his time helping his kind, solicitous uncle on the farm when he can, sleeping, taking gentle exercise and reacquainting himself with the area he knew so well as a child. When Jago spots Bill Sligo walking to the derelict mine wheelhouse still standing on Jacob’s land, it sets off alarm bells but both Jacob and Granny Carne warn Jago off, warnings he chooses to ignore.

Narrated by Jago, Charnley’s novel is a straightforward story with a lightly developed plot, full of lovingly beautiful descriptions of the Cornish landscape. Jago’s voice has the tone and style of a young adult, struggling with the affectless state the forty minutes he spent without oxygen reaching his brain has left him in. It’s his experience of that devastating event which has changed him irrevocably, leaving him ‘emotionally blunted’, felled by fatigue and beset by memory problems, which gives the book its focus. I found it a touching novel, echoing both Charnley’s grief for his own mother and the devastating event that has left him so changed. There are poignant references to Dunmore in the acknowledgements explaining that Granny Carne is a development of a character in her young adult novel, Inigo. Jago also quotes one of her poems. It Charnley’s brain injury is anything like Jago’s, his novel is a triumph. I hope that writing it helped him, and that his rehabilitation continues well.