Description

‘A master storyteller’
– Financial Times

Demoralised by small persecutions and the poverty of his life, Daud takes refuge in his imagination. He composes wry, sardonic letters hectoring friends and enemies, and invents a lurid colonial past for every old man he encounters.

His greatest solace is cricket and the symbolic defeat of the empire at the hands of the mighty West Indies. Although subject to attacks of bitterness and remorse, his captivating sense of humour never deserts him as he struggles to come to terms with the horror of his past and the meaning of his pilgrimage to England.

‘Demands to be read and reread, for its humour, generosity of spirit and clear-sighted vision of the infinite contradictions of human nature’
– Evening Standard

‘In clean, measured prose, Curnah zooms in on individual acts of violence … and unexpected acts of kindness’
– Daily Telegraph