World Literature Today back issues from July 2003:
Editor's note.(Special Section Alvaro Mutis)(Editorial)
Jul 01, 2003; ... IT IS WITH GREAT PLEASURE that the editors and staff present the current issues of World Literature Today and WLT Magazine, both of which feature a special section devoted to the 2002 recipient of the Neustadt International Prize for Literature, the Colombian poet, short-story writer, and ...
Nominating statement for Alvaro Mutis: Laureate of the 2002 Neustadt international prize for literature.
Jul 01, 2003; ... WHO AMONG TODAY'S SPANISH-LANGUAGE WRITERS is capable of engaging in dialogue, with poised enthusiasm, with authors as diverse as the Italian Giuseppe Ungaretti, the Frenchman Francis Ponge, the Pole Czeslaw Milosz, or the Brazilian Joao Cabral de Melo Neto, as well as with those who have ...
Alvaro Mutis on himself.
Jul 01, 2003; ... I WAS BORN in Bogota on August 25, 1923, the feast day of Saint Louis, king of France. I cannot deny the influence of my patron saint on my devotion to monarchies. I completed early studies in Brussels, then returned to Colombia for periods that were at first vacations, and, later--as they ...
Maqroll's Prayer. (Ten Poems).(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> Maqroll's Prayer "Tu as marche par les rues de chair."--Rene Crevel, "Babylone" This is not a complete version of the prayer of Maqroll ElGaviero.We have collected only some of its more salient elements, thedaily use of which we recommend to our friends as a ...
"Un bel morir ...".(Ten Poems)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> "Un bel morir ..." Upright in a boat, stilled in the middle of a riverwhose waters flow past in a slow eddyingof mud and roots,the missionary blesses the chief's family.Fruit, glass beads, animals, and jungleall receive the succinct signs of blessing ....
Sonata.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> Sonata For the trees burnt out in the wake of the storm.For the muddy waters of the delta.For all that persists in every day.For the prayers that rise at dawn.For what certain leaves bear in their veins,shadowy, the color of deep water.For the ...
Exile.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> EXILE Voice of exile, voice of a dried-up well,orphan voice, vast voice that ariseslike tenacious grass or the hoof of an animal,the deaf voice of exile,today it has welled up like a thick bloodmeekly claiming a rightful placein some part of the ...
Litany.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> LITANY This is the litany pronounced by El Gaviero as he washed in the channels of the delta: Agony of the Dark Onesgathers your fruit.Fear of the Great Onesdissolves all hope.Anguish of the Meeksoothes your branches.Water of the Dead Ones ...
Moirology *.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> Moirology A harsh thistle is stuck forever in your throat, Oh CondemnedOne!Every one of your affairs has become a burden.What your interests and concerns laid claim to are yours nomore.Now you try on the fresh lime of your new garments,now you are ...
The Wonderer's Tale.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> The Wonderer's Tale For Alastair Reid I come from the North,where they forge iron,where they make locks and grills,iron gates and inexhaustible arms,where great bearskins cover walls and litters,where the milk waits for a signal from the stars; ...
A Street in Cordoba.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> A Street in Cordoba For Leticia y Luis Feduchi In a street in Cordoba, a street like so many others, with itspostcard and souvenir shops,an ice-cream parlor and two bars with sidewalk tables and,inside, bullfight posters,a street with deep entryways ...
News from Hades.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> News from Hades For Jaime Jaramillo Escobar "Seal, ton neant est eternel."--Paul Leautaud The heat woke me in the middle of the night,and I went down to the gorge in search of a breezefrom the plains. Sitting beneath a leafy bamboo,a man was waiting, ...
Nocturne in Valdemosa.(Ten Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> Nocturne in Valdemosa To Jan Zych "le silence ... tu peux crier ... le silence encore" --Letter sent from Valdemosa by Chopin to the poet Mickiewicz At night the north wind whipsthe tops of the pines.There is a monotonous insistencein that stubborn and ...
Marqroll versus Macondo: the exceptionality of Alvaro Mutis.
Jul 01, 2003; ... THE TWO MOST SUCCESSFUL NOVELISTS in the history of Colombian literature, both in terms of critical acclaim and in terms of prizes won, are two old friends, Alvaro Mutis and Gabriel Garcia Marquez, who have known each other for more than half a century. Mutis was born in Bogota and spent ...
Confessions of an unreconstructed romantic.
Jul 01, 2003; ... I have written only one fan letter in my life, and that was to Alvaro Mutis. This is what happened. In the mid-1980s John Coleman gave me a novella by Alvaro to read--I think it was La nieve del almirante. I remember that I thanked him but protested in surprise and with some ...
Creativity in Mutis: the role of Maqroll.
Jul 01, 2003; ... PERHAPS THE MOST PERTINENT QUESTION regarding the ceremony in which Alvaro Mutis was awarded the Neustadt Prize is, Where was Maqroll? After all, he put the author there. The question is not as simple as it may first appear. For several years, Mutis kept telling people he had found his ...
To Alvaro Mutis.(Poetry)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> TO ALVARO MUTIS To write and live,to enter the shifting labyrinthin order to defeat the minotaurwho devours dreams; like Yvain, at the fountaindaring to pour wateron the stone and stir upthe hurricane and adventure; like Sheikh ...
From Austin and for Alvaro.(Poetry)(Brief Article)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> FROM AUSTIN AND FOR ALVARO Surrounded by fireflies--ventures on one side,heraldic emblems on the other--we ascend the riverof painted birds. We hear the afternoonfading into moonlight. Perhaps we should stop. Perhaps we should ...
Welcome home.(Three Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> WELCOME HOME Welcome home to the fatherlandFlowing with milk, honey and oilWhere it's said one no longer needs to toil!(But don't see my calloused palms,see flabby hands shake flabby handsof kindred potentates with ingratiating smiles.Its ...
Waiting for Her Son.(Three Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> Waiting for Her Son She's been waiting for her son,These twenty years she's been waiting,Sitting on sand, at the waterside,Since the drowning of the fleeing rising sun! He went to war, jubilant,To fight the Biafran "rebels" he said,Who had ...
The Silent Voice.(Three Poems)(Poem)
Jul 01, 2003; ... <Pre> The Silent Voice The moon's rays whispering low and softLike a mother calming her child in nightmare,Shed troubled heart and mind of yesterday's fearsIn the mystery of sleep as the hours, handOver hand, draw near tomorrow's dawn.And as I stand listening ...
Poetry and freedom: a rain cloud, a swallow, my soul! I am bound; you are free.(Currents)
Jul 01, 2003; ... THAT IS HOW MY POEM "That Which We Call a Soul" ends. It was written in 1966 and appeared in my book Signs (Primety). (1) Even today it seems to me that in this poem I managed to capture the moment in which I first felt free as a person--perhaps not the first time I felt free in my life, ...
Confessions of a Berlitz-tape Chicana.
Jul 01, 2003; ... WE'RE EVERYWHERE, and it's time to come out of the closet: I speak of the tongue-tied generation, buyers of books with titles like Master Spanish in Ten Minutes a Day While You Nap. We're the Chicanas with cassettes in our glove compartments; commuting to work we lip phrases for directing ...
France and American literature: the crocodile beckons.
Jul 01, 2003; ... IN FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY'S "The Crocodile," a hapless civil servant named Ivan Matveitch goes to see an Egyptian crocodile on exhibition. It is not every day that such an exoticism comes to St. Petersburg. Alas, in a bizarre turn of circumstances, he is swallowed by the crocodile. Unlucky man! ...
The aesthetics of necessity: an interview with Werewere Liking.(WLT Interviews)(Interview)
Jul 01, 2003; ... CAMEROONIAN ARTIST WEREWERE LIKING founded the Village Ki-Yi M'Bock (signifying "ultimate knowledge" in Liking's native Bassa language) in the bustling capital of Cote d'Ivoire in 1985. Today the Ki-Yi is a cooperative "village" within the heart of Abidjan and home to some fifty-odd ...
The edge in the middle: an interview with Alberto Rios.(Interview)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Leslie Wootten How did you decide on The Smallest Muscle in the Human Body as a title for your new book of poems? Alberto Rios The title is excerpted from "Some Extensions on the Sovereignty of Science," a poem I wrote shortly after my father's death. The human body's smallest ...
The back of my own head in a crowd.(Fiction)(Short Story)
Jul 01, 2003; ... MY HUSBAND ADOLFO IS GONE. They have stolen him from me, and there is no news. He has been inside me for so many years that when they took him, they took me as well. They took what was inside me, and so there is nothing left to hold me up. Since he has been gone I might have looked to the ...
Berlin/Berlin.(Travel)
Jul 01, 2003; ... IN THE TEXT OF MY IMAGINATION, the name Berlin always has a slash indicating two perspectives. I do not mean the more obvious geographical division into East and West, even though I knew Berlin before, during, and after the notorious Wall and even though the division is still palpable ...
From page to screen: J.R.R. Tolkien and Peters Jackson.(Children's Literature)
Jul 01, 2003; ... J.R.R. TOLKIEN'S THE LORD OF THE RINGS must be at least in the running for the title "Most-Read Work of the Twentieth Century," yet its success remains as surprising as ever. Consider how it must have seemed to Tolkien's publisher, Sir Stanley Unwin, when Tolkien first submitted it fifty ...
Caliban turns thirty-two.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Jul 01, 2003; ... I WOULD LIKE TO CONGRATULATE World Literature Today for the special issue in honor of Roberto Fernandez Retamar. A poet and critic, Fernandez Retamar is one of the most important contemporary Cuban writers. His publications include such poetry collections as Elegia como un himno (1950), ...
The heirs of Caliban.(Letters)(Letter to the Editor)
Jul 01, 2003; ... MERVYN MORRIS's splendid piece in your recent issue, titled "Sir Vidia and the Prize" (see WLT, spring 2002, pp. 11-14), meanders into a big disappointment. I wonder what it would require for Mr. Morris, a West Indian himself, to denounce V. S. Naipaul for his contempt of black people ....
Gabriel Garcia Marquez. Vivir para contarla.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... New York / Buenos Aires. Knopf/ Sudamericana. 2002. 573579 pages. $25. ISBN 1-4000-4106-6 / 950-07-2298-4 OCTOBER 2002 was marked by the publication of Vivir para contarla, the intensely anticipated first volume of Gabriel Garcia Marquez's memoirs. In this 579-page text ...
Virtual Lotus: Modern Fiction of Southeast Asia.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Teri Shaffer Yamada, ed. Ann Arbor. University of Michigan Press. 2002. xii + 332 pages. $65 ($26.95 paper). ISBN 0-472-09789-X (06789-3 paper) SOUTHEAST ASIA is a multicultural region inhabited by people of various races, religions, and language backgrounds. Some of the ...
Ariel Dorfman. Blake's Therapy.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... New York. Seven Stories. 2002. 175 pages. $12.95. ISBN 1-58322-479-3 ARIEL DORFMAN is not only a master of fiction but a master of timing as well. Written in English and copyrighted in 200l, the completion of Blake's Therapy synchronistically paralleled--and anticipated--the ...
Yves Bonnefoy. Les Planches courbes.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Paris. Mercure de France. 2002. 139 pages. 12.50 [euro]. ISBN 2-7152-2298-X AS THE RECENT Yves Bonnefoy aujourd'hui (2002) and Avec Yves Bonnefoy: De la poesie (200l) eloquently demonstrate, the work of France's greatest living poet has developed and deepened over the last ten ...
Monika Maron. Endmoranen.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Frankfurt a.M. S. Fischer. 2002. 252 pages. 18.60 [euro]. ISBN 3-10-048810-5 LUCKILY, Monika Maron's literary talent and critical acumen have survived the collapse of the East German communist regime intact. Her novel Stifle Zeile Sechs (1991), one of the first literary texts ...
Rohinton Mistry. Family Matters.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... New York, Knopf. 2002. $26. 434 pages. ISBN 0-375-40373-6 IN FAMILY MATTERS, Rohinton Mistry beautifully colors a contemporary Bombay peopled with characters whose lives are filled with mundane--but no less grand--struggles and accomplishments. As with his earlier short-story ...
Savyon Liebrecht. Makom tov la-lailah.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Jerusalem. Keter. 2002. 260 pages. ISBN 965-07-1131-7 IN SAVYON LIEBRECHT's latest excellent short-story collection, Makom tov la-lailah, characters are trapped In a dark world, caught between pain, acceptance, and suppression. There is an artfully disjointed element ...
Maria Rosa Cutrufelli. Giorni d'acqua corrente: Quando la vita delle donne diventa racconto.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Milan. Pratiche Editrice. 2002. 192 pages. 13 [euro]. ISBN 88-7380-739-9 WORKS BY CONTEMPORARY Italian women writers often elude generic categorization. Maria Rosa Cutrufelli has created her own genre, a blend of fiction and travel journal that evokes with precision, vividness, ...
Galsan Tschinag. Tau und Gras.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Zurich. Unionsverlag. 2002. 157 pages. 14.80 [euro]. ISBN 3-293-00305-2 IT IS NO SURPRISE that Germany, at the crossroads of refugees and as the second home of Gastarheifer, has for several decades nourished writing that gives literary expression to the uneasy encounter of ...
Finn Carling. Reiser i et lukket rom.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Oslo. Gyldendal Norsk. 2002.158 pages. 249 kr. ISBN 82-05-30585-4 LIKE SOME OF HIS OTHER RECENT FICTION, Finn Carling's latest book is anything but a conventional Norwegian novel. Passing far beyond the frontiers of realistic fiction, Travels in a Closed Room bells as ...
Mia Couto. Under the Frangipani.(Book Review)(Brief Review)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 2003; ... David Brookshaw, tr. London / Cape Town. Serpent's Tail / David Philip. 2001. viii + 150 pages. 10 [pounds sterling]/$15. ISBN 1-85242-729 / 0-86486378-0 UNDER THE FRANGIPANI is Mozambican fiction writer Mia Couto's first detective story. Four editions of it already appeared in ...
Yasimina Khadra. L'imposture des mots.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Paris. Julliard. 2002. 177 pages. 16.60 [euro]. ISBN 2-260-01594-8 MOHAMMED MOULESSEHOUL no longer needs to exploit his wife's name, Yasmina Khadra, to sign his novels in order to protect his identity. It can now serve literally as a pen name. Indeed, since the publication of ...
Leila Sebbar. Marguerite.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Paris. Eden. 2002. 117 pages. 11 [euro]. ISBN 2-913245-49-8 A CONSISTENT THEME in Leila Sebbar's early fiction, particularly in her celebrated Scheherazade trilogy (Sherazade, 17 ans, brune, frisee, les yeux verts [1982], Les Carnets de Sherazade [1985], and Le Fou de Sherazade ...
Alain Mabanckou. Les petit-fils negres de Vercingetorix.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Paris. Le Serpent a Plumes. 2002. 264 pages. 15 [euro]. ISBN 2-84261-317-1 WITH THE PUBLICATION OF HIS FOURTH NOVEL, Alain Mabanckou deserves recognition as one of francophone Africa's most prolific contemporary writers. Already at the age of thirty-five, Mabanckou has produced ...
Sabri Moussa. Seeds of Corruption.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Mona N. Mikhail, tr. New York / Northampton, Massachusetts Interlink 2002. 169 pages. $12.95. ISBN 1-56656-457-3 SEEDS OF CORRUPTION, originally published in Arabic in 1980 as Fasad al-amkinah, is a quasiepic novel of adventure, self-exploration, desolation, and absurdity. Set ...
Reesom Haile. We Invented the Wheel.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Charles Cantalupo, tr. Trenton, New Jersey / Asmara, Eritrea. Red Sea Press. 2002. xii + 243 pages. $79.95 ($21.95 paper). ISBN 1-56902-162-7 (163-5 paper) REESOM HAILE'S POETRY IN TIGRIGNA, a major Eritrean language, grows out of the double heritage of traditional African ...
Tongue and Mother Tongue: African Literature and the Perpetual Quest for Identity.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Pamela J. Olubunmi Smith & Daniel P. Kunene, eds. Trenton, New Jersey / Asmara, Eritrea. Africa World Press. 2002. 216 pages. $21.95. ISBN 0-86543-995-8 (996-6 paper) TONGUE AND MOTHER TONGUE is a volume of selected papers whose aim is to inform readers about literature written ...
Jacques Stephen Alexis. In the Flicker of an Eyelid.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Carrol F. Coates, Edwidge Danticat, trs. Charlottesville. University of Virginia Press. 2002. 277 pages. $59.50 ($19.95 paper). ISBN 0-8139-2138-4 (2139-2 paper) IN A MOVING 1983 letter to her deceased father, Jacques Stephen Alexis, Florence Alexis brilliantly sums up her ...
Edward Lucie-Smith. Changing Shape: New and Selected Poems.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Manchester, U.K. Carcanet (IPG, distr.). 2002. 118 pages. 12.75 [pounds sterling]/$16.95. ISBN 1-85754-549-4 MUCH OF EDWARD LUCIE-SMITH'S ATTITUDE toward poetry can be discerned in his poem "Postcard": "A poet of my kind / Skates on the thinnest ice." Does this mean that his ...
Mohamed Berrada. Fugitive Light.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Issa J. Boullata, tr. Michael Beard, foreword. Syracuse, New York. Syracuse University Press. 2002. xi + 171 pages. $24.95. ISBN 0-8156-0749-0 A WELL-KNOWN Moroccan painter, al-Ayshuni, is the protagonist of Mohamed Berrada's Fugitive Light, a novel that explores the urges of ...
Emeka Aniagolu. Black Mustard Seed.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Enugu, Nigeria. Fourth Dimension Publishing (African Books Collective, distr.) 2002. 312 pages. 11.95/$19.95 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 978-156-487-3 EMEKA AMIAGOLU'S RECENT NOVEL Black Mustard Seed is a meditation on postcolonial nation-building in Nigeria in the aftermath of ...
Femi Ojo-Ade. Black Gods: a Collection of Short Stories.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... San Francisco / Lagos. African Heritage Press (African Books Collective, distr.). 2002. xi + 176 pages. $14.95. ISBN 0-9628864-0 THE BEST SHORT STORY in Nigerian Femi Ojo-Ade's new collection Black Gods is the brief selection "Doctor." In this four-page vignette, the unnamed ...
Onsonye Tess Onwueme. The Missing Face.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... 2nd ed. San Francisco/Lagos. African Heritage Press (African Books Collective, distr.). 2002. xi + 62 pages. $14.95/8.95 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-9628864-3-2 THE MISSING FACE recounts the story of Ida Bee from Detroit, who voyages to Africa with her seventeen-year-old son, ...
Osonye Tess Onwueme. Then SHE Said IT: a Play.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 2003; ... San Francisco / Lagos. African Heritage Press (African Books Collective, distr.). 2002. x + 116 pages. $14.95/8.95 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-9628864-2-4 THE SCENE IS HUNGERIA. The theme is a la Lysistrata in that the female populace, more downtrodden than the males, rises up and ...
Abubakar Othman. The Palm of Time.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Lagos. Malthouse (African Books Collective, distr.). 2002. 97 pages. $18.95/10.95 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 978-023-155-2 THE MOST UNUSUAL FEATURE of The Palm of Time is that the final sections contain poems that are not by Abubakar Othman at all. Rather, they are by diverse hands ...
Ali Jimale Ahmed. Fear Is a Cow.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Lawrenceville, New Jersey / Asmara, Eritrea. Red Sea. 2002. xiv + 85 pages, ill. ISBN 1-56902-158-9 (159-7 paper) ALI JIMALE AHMED left Somalia to take a doctorate at UCLA, apparently decided not to go home, and presently teaches in two New York City colleges. Given the history ...
Johann Lodewyk Marais. Aves.(Book Review)(Brief Article)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Pretoria. Protea Boekhuis. 2002. 75 pages. R79.95. ISBN 1-919825-51-7 JOHANN LODEWYK MARAIS has several volumes of poetry to his credit--all noted for their sober and straightforward language. As a committed "green," a nature conservationist, he has also edited two volumes of ...
Uma Parameswaran. Mangoes on the Maple Tree.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Fredericton, New Brunswick. Broken Jaw. 2002. 223 pages. Can$19.95. ISBN 1-896647-79-0 UMA PARAMESWARAN'S first novel, Mangoes on the Maple Tree, offers a sustained focus on three weeks in the lives of an Indian immigrant family in Canada's most centrally located city: Winnipeg ....
Anita Rau Badami. Tamarind Woman.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Chapel Hill, North Carolina. Algonquin. 2002. 266 pages. $23.95. ISBN 1-56512-335-2 IN HER SECOND NOVEL, Tamarind Woman, Anita Rau Badami once again proves to be a wonderfully gifted storyteller. In a dramatic turn from her male-centered bildungsroman, A Hero's Walk (2001; see ...
Sujata Bhatt. A Colour for Solitude.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Manchester, England. Carcanet (Paul & Co., distr.). 2002. 112 pages. 12.95/$21.95 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 1-85754-594-X (589-3) FALLING BACK on the fond memories of the past, Sujata Bhatt was seen to be eminently engaged in writing India in its sociocultural totality in ...
Armando Menezes. The Cradle of My Dreams: Selected Writings of Armando Menezes (1902-1983).(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Louis Menezes & Ignatius Menezes, eds. Chennai, India. Casa Goa. 2002. 278 pages. ISBN 81-7525-308-8 BROUGHT OUT on the centenary of the birth of the late Armando Menezes, The Cradle of My Dreams is a much-awaited commemoration volume offering glimpses of the varied aspects of ...
David M. Rosenfeld. Unhappy Soldier: Hino Ashihei and Japanese World War II Literature.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Lanham, Maryland. Lexington. 2002. xi + 180 pages. $70. ISBN 0-7391-0365-2 THE PERIOD OF INCREASING MILITARISM in Japan from the mid-1930s to the end of World War II was a challenging one for many authors. Some refused to compromise and were punished, some were silent, and some, ...
Yi Sang, Hahm Dong-seon, & Choi Young-mi. Three Poets of Modern Korea.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... Yu Jungyul, James Kimbrell, trs. Louisville, Kentucky. Sarabande. 2002. xviii + 81 pages. $13.95. ISBN 1-889330-71-X YI SANG (pseudonym of Kim Hae-gyeong) is a representative short-story writer and poet of the Japanese era of rule over Korea, who died in Japan following release ...
Maurice Gee. Ellie and the Shadow Man.(Book Review)
Jul 01, 2003; ... London. Faber. 2002. 348 pages. 12.99 [pounds sterling]. ISBN 0-571-21092-9 MAURICE GEE is well placed within the pantheon of New Zealand fiction, notably for his Plumb trilogy, which shot a wide-angle view of a society islanded, innovative in some ways yet moralistically ...