![]() Dust rising up and blowing into the shed and the heat of the sun on the corrugated-iron roof come radiating inside. There is writing as good as this: “The work went on. 303, there is the Baird shower tub, the Simac pump, the Villiers motor for sharpening handpiece cutters, and “cracked yellow blocks of Sunlight soap.” Readers are given a specific, detailed, utterly convincing and pictorial view of his characters, their work and their setting. Daisley’s intimate knowledge of such men and their lives gives an impressive authenticity to his tale, set in Western Australia in the 1950s. Tough men in tough country where mateship, strong but tacit, is an essential part of surviving. The strongest and best expressed relationships in Stephen Daisley’s award-winning Coming Rain are between men, and between men and the natural environment. ![]() ![]() But is it actually any good? Owen Marshall slips on his gown and his powdered wig, and passes judgment. Stephen Daisley will speak in Christchurch and Dunedin this weekend about his novel Coming Rain, which won the 2016 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards book of the year. ![]()
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