Unsworth is a consistently good writer and so it is with this book. Farnaby has his teenage belief in Christianity punctured by a cruel gift. At the same time he experiences the first stirrings of love for a slightly older girl during a holiday in rural England.
The book is divided in three parts. Part One in Istanbul, Part Two recollects Farnaby's corruption and his meeting Miranda a decade earlier, and Part Three returns to a sixties present at a Turkish resort where the three main characters meet again. Part Three introduces extra characters who fill out the story, but add little to the plot, except to introduce some humour and cringing sixties sex capers.
Nonetheless, Unsworth is always a thoughtful intelligent writer.

Not one of my favorite Unsworth novels, but anything by him is worth a read. Begins dark, and follows with a long interlude of dark humor, populated by a series of bizarre characters who float through with almost no purpose, and ends on a dark note again. There isn't a single admirable character in the novel, although it's easy enough to empathize with a number of them. There are basically three extended set-pieces in the book, one in the boyhood of the main character, when he receives the "gift" of the title, and two in late 1960's Istanbul. ( )