In this novel a young Englishman, able, ambitious, sanguine and silly, spoils a promising start as an architect in London and goes to the New Zealand of the 1900’s to try again. There the flaws in his character defeat him again and he drifts to the South where he marries into a family of Irish small farmers. The man tells the story in his old age and, while waiting for death, he can still recognize and be stirred by the young man he once was who could hardly wait for life.
Dan Davin is a well-known writer of short stories. He is the author of Salamander and the Fire and also selected stories for Short Stories of the Second World War.