Watch of Gryphons and Other Stories

Several of the stories here are long and unhurried. In the first, a young man who broke down at university spends fourteen months with relatives on a North Otago farm and learns that his aunt once played the viola. In another, a hard-up student is hired to care for an old man losing his memory while the man's daughter and her husband take a holiday. 'Passing Triptych' sketches three characters met in menial jobs; 'Hodge' follows a man who seems to draw misfortune away from his relatives; three hopeless young men head for a weekend in Queenstown. In the title story Paul, a New Zealander consulting on a new reservoir near Perugia, befriends his neighbours Giancarlo, who uses a wheelchair, and Maria, with whom he shares no language.

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About the book

Form

Short stories

Length

316 pages in the original

Set in

New Zealand, Italy

First published

2005 by Vintage

Author's age

64 when first published

ISBN

9781869417062 (Random House New Zealand, New Zealand)