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The Redemption of Elsdon Bird is the story of an imaginative
child raised in the intolerant atmosphere of the Christian
Brethren.
When Dad gewts sacked from his city workplace for trying to
‘save’ his workmates, the Birds are forced to leave
and move to a small, remote town. Elsdon hopes life will change
for the better, but instead the family begins to disintegrate.
Communicating with no-one except for other so-called ‘holy
rollers’, Elsdon’s parents descend into an even
more extreme religious fundamentalism, using their son as
a whipping-boy for all their frustrations. And when a sequence
of disasters finally breaks up the family, Elsdon’s amazing
resilience and precocious humanity are tested to the very
limit.
• Shortlisted for the 1988 Sunday Express Book
of the Year Award
• The first living author to be selected for the Peter
Owen Modern Classics series
• The author’s last novel, Lady Jean, published
in 2001 to major acclaim
‘A wonderful account of childhood’ — Mail
On Sunday
‘Remarkable’ — Sunday Express
‘Outstanding’ — Evening Standard
‘Grips from end to end’ — Financial Times
‘Elsdon’s untarnished optimism lights the bleakest
landscapes.’ — Independent
‘Extraordinary writing’ — Gay Times
‘A little marvel’ — Guardian
NOEL VIRTUE was born in Wellington, New Zealand, in
1947. The author of eight novels and an autobiography, he
is now established as one of New Zealand’s leading contemporary
novelists. |
