On first publication in 1987 this novel of the campaign of Maori rebel Te Kooti won New Zealand's premier literary award and was judged one of the best books of the year by the New York Times Book Review.

Based on historical fact, this is a wonderful story of little-known events and characters in the dramatic 19th-century colonial history of New Zealand. Lieutenant George Fairweather, late of her Majesty's British Imperial Army, has resigned his commission and journeyed east to Poverty Bay, seeking new vistas to paint and hoping to resume his relationship with a part Maori woman.

Ever on the outside looking in, a man who shies away from permanent ties, Fairweather is enlisted in the defense of the colonists, against the rebel Te Kooti and his followers, who liken themselves to the Israelites cast out of Egypt, led by a new Moses.

Tough and tragic, this novel powerfully explores some universal themes: the futility of war and the rights of the conqueror and the conquered.