O Darkly Bright

Pisces Print, 1987. First edition. Foxing at page edges, otherwise good secondhand condition.

This is a tale of a reformed rake, Alistair Barra, a surgeon, so shaken by his wife's suicide, he haltingly moves from barren remorse to life affirming repentance and recommitment to the dead Anne. He is greatly helped in his regeneration by an old archdeacon, who, through recollected conversations, puts his hand back into time from beyond the grave to help Alistair back on his feet. The story is set at the turn of the century in Southland.