I chose this thinking it was a shorter book than some others. However, it soon became clear that this would be a slow careful read.
The book is divided into five sections and as an introduction to each section there is a separate narrative about a woman in hospital. Each section is then narrated from the perspective of one of the characters and the reader is often a few pages in before discovering which character from the first section we are now following. In this way, all the main characters become fleshed out and witnessed from different perceptions. Sometimes going back in time and moving forward eventually, past the opening section. All the threads are skilfully drawn together to a satisfying conclusion. From the cover...
In the deceptively quiet Waikato of the 1930s and 1940s, a number of lives connect in a complex web of family ties, desire and violence. The events of this story also take in boxing, farming, devotion and perversion, ranging as far as Tasmania and the Spanish Civil War. Alex, tall and solitary, striding through this novel . . . Barbara, his first love . . . Bet, strong and unobtrusive . . . And the enigmatic man in the balaclava.
I very much enjoyed this book. The author has created a sense of place and time in NZ and I can appreciate why it won the Montana NZ Book Award in 1994. (8.5) ( )