In WWII ‘dangerous aliens’ were incarcerated on Somes/Matiu Island; a small island in Wellington harbour. The view of Wellington from the island and of the island from Wellington are important impressions from Josef Mandl’s story.

Mandl reflects on his life in his notebook. He returns to his youth playing at Communism on the streets and forest clearings of 1930s Austria. His father propelled him from Vienna on the tip of his boot and he landed in New Zealand, where he fell under the spell of the German Willi Gauss.

Mandl admits that though he grew up in Vienna he is not musical. But, his story reminds me of a piece of music as it jumps backwards and forwards in time and continually returns to the central mystery - the life of Willi Gauss.

His story also explores his relationship with his wife, children and New Zealand society. Many New Zealanders show him casual bigotry, an all or nothing attitude to assimilation, and cowardice.

It is hard for me to be objective about how good this book is. I found the characters multi-faceted and the prose a pleasure to read. Mandl, the narrator, was the hardest character for me to get a firm grasp of. I used to live down the hill from where I imagine Mandl had his Wadestown home, so all the descriptions are strongly interwoven with my own associations. This made the experience of reading this novel very rich. I was reminded of where I came from and also had a human live pinned onto shameful events from my country’s past. ( )