The Curative

Runner up Montana fiction award 2001

This brilliant, compelling and unusual novel - part mystery, part philosophy and part social history - is set in the early years of the 19th century. The narrator is an inmate in Bedlam, the London mental asylum, where he is chained to a wall in unspeakably disgusting conditions. Yet he is witty, urbane and seemingly sane - he philosophises on freedom, on love and love lost, and on the fleeting nature of happiness.

As this beautifully constructed story unfolds we learn about his everyday life in the asylum, about his life before Bedlam and the answers to the critical questions: Why is this man here? What exactly has he done? The setting is English, but there are subtle New Zealand references that will tantalise local readers. Just one example: our hero recalls how as a boy he watched Cook's ships depart on their first voyage.

First published 2000.

Runner up Montana fiction award 2001