''Janet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious'' HILARY MANTEL
''Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart'' JANE CAMPION
''All my preoccupations as a writer - my notions of home, beauty, madness of sorts and longing - come from her'' MEG MASON

There is nothing in the world the matter with me, except that I have been bathed in a trough and dipped under a waterfall and the pine-needles picked from my scars. . .

This is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich poetic way of seeing the world leads to a heartbreaking life in institutions.

A dazzling, fierce cry of darkness and joy, Janet Frame''s debut novel is a poetic masterpiece and a timeless classic of New Zealand literature.

INTRODUCED BY MARGARET DRABBLE

''The first great New Zealand novel and a modernist masterpiece . . . the book''s immense power to unnerve, astonish and impress endures'' Guardian