After Dawn

by Jonathan Finch

A novel about adolescent love and trauma set in London and Scotland. Jim, the protagonist, tries to escape his past but finds it catches up with him. Love, sex, virginity, and adolescent and adult understanding are explored against a background of stunning scenery and formidable weather.

Audible Audio

Published April 9, 2018

Reviews

[Erica Switzer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Pushing and pulling his prose with precision and rhythmic flows, Jonathan Finch weaves a tale that draws you in with every page. The biggest draw and source of surprise for me was his beautifully detailed and thought-provoking nature scenes of the Scottish highlands. In spite of having never been, I found myself wanting to linger a while in his studies of landscapes, fleeting meditations on worms and birds, lochs, meadows and pastoral scenes.

Anchored by protagonist Jim’s coming-of-age and burgeoning manhood, the reader witnesses his fated love and loss, his internal struggles with himself, and more. His familial bonds are tested by his mental state. Eventually, he finds himself a lodger at the property of the enigmatic Ms. Keats, befriending a whimsical array of characters like the lovely Pauline, enchanting Lucy, farmer Ian and his faithful dog, Grinder. Jim’s character is intense, poignant and relatable as he experiences the bliss and bite of love, longing, and loss. Above all, he can never escape his true love Dawn.

[John Holland · Rating 5 out of 5]

I’ve just finished reading the book After the Dawn, written by Jonathan Finch. I must say I was surprised by how lyrical the language is. Then I find out Mr Finch is a poet as well as a writer of fiction and that explained a lot to me.
The words took me from rollicking through the countryside on one page, to crying in the heather on another. I live on the other side of the world from Scotland. In a hard, dry place of rocks and dust, but Mr Finch has now taken me to Scotland and shown me her people and her strange (to me) complexity of nature.
The people are as well imagined as the countryside. Mr Finch paints them in tints we all recognise. They are all familiar to me, these people. They could live down my street, or any other place. They are people and like all of us they share the failings and strengths of our flawed species.
I won’t spoil the suspense by saying too much about the story-line. Suffice to say that there is pain and anguish mixed in amidst the lovely language. To me it is a coming of age story. I can recall experiencing many of those same emotions during the long-gone days of my callow youth.
Mr Finch’s book resonated with me. I think because I too was a poet before I turned my hand to fiction. Our poetry and fiction might be as different as Australia is to Scotland, but we have a shared knowing that bridges our worlds.
I would recommend this book without reservation. It is a wonderful telling of often painful events.

~John Holland~ Writer and Poet, Australia.

[Jeffrey Rasley · Rating 5 out of 5]

I knew Finch was a poet, but I didn't realize what a poetical writer he is. After Dawn is so lyrical that it is as much poetry as prose. The reader needs to accept the point-of-view head-hopping and the quick flips from internal stream-of-consciousness to cinematic description of scene and setting.After accepting the unique literary style of the novel, it became sheer joy to read.
It is remarkable how well the characters are developed through Finch's lyrical style. I guess it is because you experience their thoughts and feelings at a more visceral level than if they were merely described. The harsh beauty of the Scottish Highlands is also well reflected through the poetic and descriptive language of Finch's style.
Lastly, the building tension within Jim keeps the reader in suspense about - what will he do?- until the last page.
My one small criticism is that I was not convinced Ray would have been willing to give Pauline a ring.

[Lorin Cary · Rating 4 out of 5]

After breaking up with Dawn, his first love, Jim ends up depressed and in a mental facility. Then he flees to Scotland to hike and fish. He boards with Mrs. Keats, a manipulative widow who “entertained her bitterness like all her guests….” He falls in love with Pauline, who turns out to be engaged, and once again he flees. Finch uses an omniscient point of view, which is at times a little disconcerting as you get inside the heads of different characters in the same paragraph. I like the descriptions of the Scottish highlands and the character development. I thought Finch portrayed Mrs. Keats particularly well. Finch also introduces a novel technique toward the end of the book: the Curriculum Vitae of three characters (plus a dog and a fish)—Pauline’s boyfriend, Jim (very briefly), and Ian (a farmer who Jim befriended and who died in an accident). This did not work for me. Overall, tho, I found this a good read.

[Lois Letchford · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was an interesting book as it was not a “happy-ever-after” tale in romantic relationships. I found this book to be a study of human relationships and behaviors. Set in Scotland, readers are taken on a journey to isolated places abounding with wildlife. The author’s incredible descriptions of rainy days, storms, and cold, grey days of the Scottish Highlands had me imagining it all.
The characters living in this remote village had motives for their behavior which created dilemmas and dramas. I found the late introduction of a game-changing character late in the book a little disconcerting. The change of writing style to introduce this character was an interesting choice which may work for some people. A good read!

[John Dolan · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Seconds moved like water on electric wires, drip-dropped away.”
Finch is a versatile writer, penning stories ranging from the sleazy heart of Thailand to poetry and his children’s tale ‘The Snowman Who Came Alive’. ‘After Dawn’ is yet another departure in style and tone from his works that I have consumed up to now.
A combination of romance and literary fiction, ‘After Dawn’ is an often touching story played out against the rugged backdrop of Scotland. It is marketed as a novel for adolescents and the vulnerable, but in reality it should appeal to a much wider readership than that. Finch offers no easy answers to life’s dilemmas. It is a lyrical, artistic and psychologically satisfying piece of work, and it gets five stars from me.

[Lee Arrowood · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very enjoyable read

Very interesting. The author provides such detail in the descriptions that I was imagining I was there. I could see the water, the snow, and feel the cold during the winter.

[Josh Soule · Rating 5 out of 5]

The beautifully poetic writing style makes "After Dawn" an enjoyable read. The passion of the author, Mr. Jonathan Finch, comes alive in the characters.
If you want to not only read--but feel, then I recommend this book.

[Grant Leishman · Rating 4 out of 5]

After Dawn is a sometimes poignant, sometimes stark look at love, loss, and coping with life.
We meet Jim, a young man who has never gotten over the infidelity of his first love, Dawn. After struggling to cope with her rejection (or perhaps his paranoia over her fidelity) he descends into a period of mental instability and substance abuse. Psychiatric intervention sees Jim slowly climb back up through the levels of "madness" back to some sort of normality.
Feeling strong, Jim sets out for a brave, new challenge. Deciding to get away from London and all that has caused him pain, he heads for the wilds of Scotland and the fishing and birdwatching that are indeed his passions.
In Scotland, Jim meets Pauline and the cycle begins again.
I enjoyed the story and I couldn't help but wonder if there was an element of the autobiographical in it. Regardless, it is a simple tale of a man lost in his creation of the "perfect love", a love that is clearly unobtainable.
I knew Finch was a poet as well as a novelist and my initial thoughts when I began to read After Dawn, was that it was more poetry than prose. As a reader, I started to think Finch was trying to impress me with his grasp of lyrical English, rather than tell me a story. Make no mistake, the author is a wordsmith and a very good one at that, but I did feel it was a little overdone in this book. It was almost like each simile or description had to be bigger, brighter, and more convoluted than the one that preceded it. I'm certainly not knocking Finch's style, but for me, in this story, it almost descended into cliche.
The story itself was great and I would recommend the read on that score alone. If you are a fan of lyrical and descriptive prose, then definitely give this a try. Finch is a master of the language. Four stars from me, on the story and the empathy, Finch grabbed out of me, for the main character, Jim.