Talking About O'Dwyer

About this book

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 soldiers family place a curse on ODwyer the officer who was his commander at the time he died? Half a century later two Oxford dons Newall and Winterstoke attend the funeral of their colleague ODwyer an expatriate New Zealander. After the ceremony Newall reveals to Winterstoke the story of the curse placed on ODwyer during the war and in the days that follow he continues the tales of ODwyer and his cursed life. Slowly the stories of Newall another New Zealander in self-enforced exile and of Winterstoke are also revealed in Steads 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.