Sub Rosa is a book which can be read from either end. The cover is identical on both sides, but there are two rather different stories within.

The first is the story of a man who has just been released from prison. He was imprisoned for the involuntary manslaughter of his mother. He looks for new opportunities and a new life, but the job adverts and obituaries in the newspaper melt together, and memories of his mother hinder his progress.

In the second story, a man wakes up in a swamp without knowing how he got there. He looks for a way back to town, but all he finds is a little farmyard in a dip inhabited by an elderly lady who takes such good care of him that his memories of the town are erased.

The stories are different but linked by the same homelessness and perverse search for a mother figure