The reader journeys from the clean, greengrass of peacetime to the mangled hedges and bodies of war as the eponymous Toby dies in battle early in the book.
At first it looks more like a fat white and yellow fish swimming through a green sun-speckled ocean, as if it and the tree and the grass were occupants of a fantastical aquarium.
As the best tennis players in the world hit the slick green (for now, anyway) grass at the All England Club in Wimbledon, it feels like the right time to pose the timeless question: Who is the best professional tennis player without a Grand Slam singles championship?