Nourishment – Gerard Woodward

Description

Nourishment by Gerard Woodward is a darkly comic and emotionally layered work of literary fiction set against the backdrop of wartime and post-war Britain. The novel follows Tory Pace, a woman trying to maintain normalcy with her children evacuated, her husband Donald imprisoned in a German POW camp, and her overbearing mother as an unwelcome housemate. Her already precarious life is disrupted when Donald demands that she send him a sexually explicit letter—an outrageous request that propels her into a strange, poignant, and sometimes absurd journey through London’s libraries, barbershops, and even public toilets, in search of carnal language.

What begins as a reluctant duty soon becomes an exploration of desire, repression, and the absurdity of social norms during wartime. When Donald finally returns home, haunted and damaged, their reunion is anything but simple. Secrets, betrayals, and bizarre schemes—like ending world hunger with protein pills—unfold across years marked by austerity and psychological scars. At once unsettling and beautifully observed, Nourishment is a bold and surprising novel that examines human resilience, sexuality, and the complex ways we feed off one another in times of crisis.

This novel is ideal for readers who appreciate dark humour, nuanced character studies, and post-war British settings with a literary edge.