Harlequin Rex

Early in the new century an epidemic of unknown origin called Harlequin is spreading, and New Zealand is hit hard. Its victims lose all restraint, jabbering and twitching towards an almost certain death, and many end up at the Slaven Centre, a sanatorium near Havelock at the head of Mahau Sound. David Stallman comes there to work as a nurse. As new patients keep arriving, he becomes entangled with Lucy Mortimer, a television personality who has the disease, and with the centre's director, Peter Culhane, known as Schweitzer. Chapters at the centre alternate with David's past: the family farm in North Canterbury, cannabis and prison, and life on the run after a violent incident in Kaikoura. Guilt, loyalty, compromise and love shape how each of them meets the disease.

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About the book

Form

Novel

Genres

Speculative (assigned by AI)

Set in

New Zealand, near future

First published

1999

Author's age

58 when first published

ISBN

9781869413958 (Vintage, New Zealand)