A Better Place

Folk in Roy Mitchell's district say the war changed him. His twin, Tony, died on Crete in 1941, and back home in New Zealand Roy puts up a hut, his whare, on a level patch above a creek, with kennels for his working dogs. The novel follows both brothers through the Second World War, from the North African desert, where Roy once drove a long way across the sand just to look at some puppies, to combat described in quick, unsparing scenes. Through them it explores what it means to be a man, the bond between brothers, brutality, painting, national identity and love between men.

AI-generated summary

About the book

Form

Novel

Length

224 pages in the original

Genres

War, Historical, Love (assigned by AI)

Set in

New Zealand, Greece, 1940s

First published

2023 by Text Publishing

Author's age

68 when first published

ISBN

9781922458681 (Text Publishing, Australia)