An exquisite book featuring a set of drawings by Dunedin artist Kathryn Madill, this landmark in recent New Zealand poetry publishing is Bernadette Hall's fifth collection and solidifies her reputation as one of the most distinctive poetic voices to have emerged in recent years. Throughout her work, the themes of secular and religious love and the transporting passion of writing are strongly felt and extended by a deepening political engagement with the history and the possibilities inherent in New Zealand.