Book excerpt: From the bestselling author of Longbourn comes a story of survival and determination, of spies and artists, passion and danger—a portrait of Samuel Beckett’s wartime experiences in Paris. “Exquisitely crafted.” —O, The Oprah Magazine In 1939 Paris, the ground rumbles with the footfall of Nazi soldiers marching along the Champs-Élysées, and a young, unknown writer, recently arrived from Ireland to make his mark, smokes one last cigarette with his lover before the city they know is torn apart. Soon he will put them both in mortal danger by joining the Resistance. Through the years that follow, we are witness to the workings of a uniquely brilliant mind struggling to create a language to express a shattered world. A Country Road, A Tree is a portrait of the extremes of human experience alchemized into one man’s timeless art.