Talking About O'dwyer

Description

What really happened to a soldier in the infamous Maori battalion, killed in the battle for Crete during World War II? And why did the soldierâÂÂs family place a curse on OâÂÂDwyer, the officer who was his commander at the time he diedl Half a century later two Oxford dons, Newall and Winterstoke, attend the funeral of their colleague OâÂÂDwyer, an expatriate New Zealander. After the ceremony, Newall reveals to Winterstoke the story of the curse placed on OâÂÂDwyer during the war and, in the days that follow, he continues the tales of OâÂÂDwyer and his âÂÂcursedâ life. Slowly the stories of Newall, another New Zealander in self-enforced exile, and of Winterstoke are also revealed in SteadâÂÂs complex and subtle narrative which shifts across time and space from New Zealand to Oxford to Croatia and to Crete at the time of the allied defeat there.

Reviews

Two novels by a critically acclaimed New Zealand writer - All Visitors Ashore is set in 1951 and in Auckland the young Curt Skidmore's head is full of novels waiting to be unravelled and his trousers full of something much more irrepressible. Talking About O'Dwyer is set in Oxford and Oxford don Mike Newall after attending a colleague's funeral he reveals a secret that the family of a Maori soldier killed during World War Two placed a curse on O'Dwyer - and the story is not just O'Dwyer's but Newall's as well.