Daniel Burrow once began a beautiful walk from Konstanz to Como with Julia, mercurial professor of literature, mother to two of his pupils, married, and the love of his life.

After years of their secret affair, they stepped out together on top of the world, full of delight in one another and in the future they imagined. Or was it only Dan who imagined it, really? He never had the chance to find out, because a few days into their adventure a single phone call changed everything.

Now, at the height of summer, with only a rucksack, a few pages of DH Lawrence that had been Julia’s, and his private strata of memory and forgetting, Dan is back on the trail. Step by step, with a tumult of emotions jostling with the demands of the dramatic Alpine landscape, he reckons with what his life is and what it might have been, had he been a different man with different choices.

'A writer operating at the height of his powers. One follows the twists and turns of this story of discovery and self-discovery in a sustained state of delight' J.M. Coetzee


'An intensely satisfying novel, superbly crafted' Nicholas Shakespeare

Tim Parks is one of those writers whose name on the cover is more or less a guarantee of a good time for the reader. His books are chewy, original and entertaining. * Financial Times *
Quicksilvery syntax slips through this compelling story of desire and loss -- Kirsty Gunn, author of THE BIG MUSIC
It is such a pleasure for the reader to follow the artful, layered, unfolding of this man's journey into his own heart and past. -- Mike McCormack, author of SOLAR BONES
Mr Geography delights and surprises to the end: a reminder to us all, regardless of age or profession, that there’s more than one route through life * Daily Telegraph *
A sustained exploration of the extraordinary grip that the defining sexual and romantic moments from our past can continue to have on us… the results are delightfully disorienting * Times Literary Supplement *
[A] sophisticated novel about a retired teacher holidaying solo in the Alps… Past and present swirl in an engrossing helter-skelter as he mulls over a life’s turning points * Mail on Sunday *

Born in Manchester, Tim Parks grew up in London and studied at Cambridge and Harvard. He lives in Milan.

Parks is the acclaimed author of novels, non-fiction and essays, including Europa, A Season with Verona, Teach Us to Sit Still, Italian Ways and Italian Life. He has been shortlisted for the Booker Prize and has won many awards for both his work in English and his translations from the Italian, which include works by Alberto Moravia, Italo Calvino, Roberto Calasso, Antonio Tabucchi and Niccolò Machiavelli.