Eucalyptus - Softcover

"One of the great and most surprising courtships in literature" (Michael Ondaatje)

"Bail tells a story which is encrusted with delicious detail, and writes in an affecting mood of rapt tenderness. The book will haunt its readers long after more perfectly-finished fictions have faded from their memories" (Andrew Motion Observer)

"Tall trees inspire tall tales. Eucalyptus makes most other novels seem weedy by comparison. It is a towering achievement" (Mark Sanderson Time Out)

"His sentences have a perpetually off-balance wit which gives you life's jumble, its mystery, its unexplained compactness. You take in the humour first, but then they deepen and deepen. Buy the book. You won't have read anything like it" (Francis Spufford Evening Standard)

"A most unusual, enchanting work...a novel of most beguiling originality" (Carmen Callil Daily Telegraph)

On a remote estate in New South Wales a man named Holland promises his daughter Ellen's hand in marriage to whomever can correctly name the hundreds of species of eucalyptus tree that he has planted on his land. Ellen observes the challengers come to the estate, one after another, drawn by tales of her legendary beauty. She gradually sinks into despair. But one afternoon a mysterious young man appears among the gum trees and tells her stories of faraway lands.