Slow to start because I could find few points of engagement in the first chapter, the story then unfolded in a langourous nostalgic rumination on destiny and self-discovery as a soldier converses with his condemned prisoner through the night before the dawn execution. The convict is little more than a catalyst for the soldier's reminiscences of growing up in a Georgian Irish country house but there is an evocation of intimacy and human connection that raises this above the average. ( )

A book of the night. It is the night before a hanging in the mountains of West Australia. Two men are to spend the night occupying a bush hut, one is an outlaw, Daniel Carney, the remaining member of the Dolan gang set on fomenting trouble for the government. The other, is the novel's main protagonist Michael Adair, an officer in the regimental corps and, by order of the Governor of New South Wales, given the duty of overseeing the secret and swift hanging of this remaining rebel. The two men, both Irish, spend the night in conversation and fitful sleep. Both relate their disparate pasts in their shared homeland. And both explore and reveal the deeper meanings behind the paths they have taken in life.

Malouf is a studied writer but one who I found perhaps a little too expository for my taste. Although this is a quiet book with a strong ending, I found some passages told me, rather than showed me, the depths of feeling and meaning that the novel set out to explore. ( )

I don't understand member 'John's review of this book as Garrety is not the prisoner - his name is Daniel Carney. Surely one should read the book before reviewing it! ( )

I enjoyed this book quite a lot more toward the end. I thought the first half of the book just seemed to drag on with an overuse of adjectives in place of a storyline, and i was close to putting it away on numerous occasions. However, i persisted and am quite glad that i did, as it really redeemed itself toward the end.
A quaint story about a convict and his overseer during the last night before his execution at dawn. It tells of the conversations and thoughts of both the men in the wee small hours. Gripping in parts but lacking depth in others. ( )