Has a richly-detailed and rewarding index ... a mine of information on Renaissance banking practices ... also an epistolary fiction set in modren times, detailing the progress of a treasure hunt in modern Florida.

The sinking of the Odradek Stadium was first published in a journal, The Paris Review, in 1971–2, then survived 25 rejections before finding a publisher for book form – Harper & Row, in 1975, then Carcanet in 1985. It is told almost entirely in the form of letters between Zachary McCaltex and his bride. According to ‘The Complete Review’ website: ‘The story twists, skips and jumps . . . Mathews mixes politics,
literature, music, and the personal . . . There is also a lot of literary play.