Drybread

271 pages. cover creased, page edge and text foxedA graveyard is all that's left of the remote Central Otago settlement of Dryb read, which miners, often hungry and disappointed, once searched for gold. It is to an old cottage nearby that Penny Maine-King flees with her young son, defyin g a Californian court order awarding custody of the child to her estranged husba nd. And seeking her in this austere, burnt country is journalist Theo Esler. He is after a story, but he discovers something far more personal and significant. Drybread, Owen Marshall's third novel, is a moving study of love and disappointm ent, of the harm we do to each other, knowingly and unknowingly, of the power an d significance of landscape in our lives. Rich and subtle, it is a compelling bo ok from one of this country's finest writers. 'Marshall is held in uncommon affe ction by New Zealand readers - generally we admire and respect rather than love our writers.' - Peter Simpson, New Zealand Listener 'I'm an admirer of Owen Mars hall's literature, with my favourite stories, chapters, etc.' - Janet Frame 'Amo ng active New Zealand writers only Maurice Gee writes with comparable - and equa lly unfashionable - moral and psychological weight.'- Lawrence Jones 'I find mys elf exclaiming over and again with delight at the precision, the beauty, the nea r perfection of his writing.' - Fiona Kidman, The Dominion.…