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Baxter's Requiem
Matthew Crow
Mr Baxter is ninety-four years old when he falls down his staircase and grudgingly finds himself resident at Melrose Gardens Retirement Home.
Baxter is many things - raconteur, retired music teacher, rabble-rouser, bon viveur - but 'good patient' he is not. He had every intention of living his twilight years with wine, music and revelry; not tea, telly and Tramadol. Indeed, Melrose Gardens is his worst nightmare - until he meets Gregory.
At only nineteen years of age, Greg has suffered a loss so heavy that he is in danger of giving up on life before he even gets going.
Determined to save the boy, Baxter decides to enlist his help on a mission to pay tribute to his long-lost love, Thomas: the man with whom he found true happiness; the man he waved off to fight in a senseless war; the man who never returned. The best man he ever knew.
With Gregory in tow Baxter sets out on a spirited escape from Melrose, bound for the war graves of Northern France. As Baxter shares his memories, the boy starts to see that life need not be a matter of mere endurance; that the world is huge and beautiful; that kindness is strength; and that the only way to honour the dead, is to live.
Baxter's Requiem is a glorious celebration of life, love and seizing every last second we have while we're here.
Baxter is many things - raconteur, retired music teacher, rabble-rouser, bon viveur - but 'good patient' he is not. He had every intention of living his twilight years with wine, music and revelry; not tea, telly and Tramadol. Indeed, Melrose Gardens is his worst nightmare - until he meets Gregory.
At only nineteen years of age, Greg has suffered a loss so heavy that he is in danger of giving up on life before he even gets going.
Determined to save the boy, Baxter decides to enlist his help on a mission to pay tribute to his long-lost love, Thomas: the man with whom he found true happiness; the man he waved off to fight in a senseless war; the man who never returned. The best man he ever knew.
With Gregory in tow Baxter sets out on a spirited escape from Melrose, bound for the war graves of Northern France. As Baxter shares his memories, the boy starts to see that life need not be a matter of mere endurance; that the world is huge and beautiful; that kindness is strength; and that the only way to honour the dead, is to live.
Baxter's Requiem is a glorious celebration of life, love and seizing every last second we have while we're here.
GENRE
Humour; Literary
UK PUBLICATION
September 2018
Humour; Literary
UK PUBLICATION
September 2018
Praise
"The fact that this novel is so witty is incidental to how good it is - it has characters you care about deeply and a heart as big as a cathedral."
Miles Jupp
"The finest love story I've read in years. Perfect, I'd say."
Phyllida Shrimpton
"Baxter's Requiem is a feel-good tale for the modern age... Crow's prose is natural and the story moves along quickly."
Irish Examiner
Miles Jupp
"The finest love story I've read in years. Perfect, I'd say."
Phyllida Shrimpton
"Baxter's Requiem is a feel-good tale for the modern age... Crow's prose is natural and the story moves along quickly."
Irish Examiner
Also by Matthew Crow
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Rights Sales for BAXTER'S REQUIEM
UK & Commonwealth: Little, Brown
France: Bragelonne
France: Bragelonne