IF ONLY

A history-spanning novel chronicles the life of a disturbed British man with a sordid familial past.

Prolific European author Tree’s tale begins in the 1930s as young Malcolm Lowry is being hurriedly sent abroad from Liverpool aboard a ship based on orders from his father, cotton broker A.O. Lowry. The directives are being carried out by A.O.’s accountant, Mr. Patrick. Malcolm has been an alcoholic since his teen years, exhibiting violent tendencies against himself and his relatives. Fearing for his family’s safety, A.O. ships his son off to far-flung points throughout Europe, America, Mexico, and Canada with instructions for Mr. Patrick to send a monthly stipend and a brief correspondence to Malcolm. This missive exchange evolves into a regular conversation between the two as they trade opinions and perspectives. But it also slowly reveals the depths of Malcolm’s mental illness and the extremes of his addiction. Fast-forward decades: Mr. Patrick’s grandson, a feisty, increasingly shifty lad, is apprehended by police in a London park with a satchel of explosives and a fistful of paper. He is also carrying 10 letters exchanged between Malcolm, who would become a notable English novelist and poet, and Mr. Patrick. Through a masterfully clever construction, the plot incrementally reveals the nefarious motivations behind the grandson’s dangerous park journey. Police and psychiatric interrogations ensue as the letters are read and the intercourse between Malcolm, the self-described “perishing disappointment who has betrayed the trust placed in me by my family,” and Mr. Patrick charts the traveler’s trips across Europe, a spontaneous marriage, and a relocation to New York City and beyond. Tree’s narrative gains momentum as the personality of the mentally unstable would-be bomber unfolds as the letters are read. The author skillfully infuses his villain with deadly obsessions: pornography, the atrocities of World War II, and horrific fantasies of rape and serial murder. Inspired by actual events (Tree’s grandfather and Malcolm Lowry had actually exchanged correspondence), the author conjures graphic images from the extremist’s grisly imagination that aren’t for the faint of heart. Readers able to stomach the man’s psychotic killing fantasies will discover a story richly embedded with plot twists and, as evidenced in Tree’s previous novel, Snug (2013), crystal-clear, if unsettling, characterizations.

A riveting, vividly realized character study of obsession, addiction, and psychosis.