"A haunting, loving, fiercely democratic epic by a master poet." - Ruth Padel, The New York Times

"The boldest poem of the twentieth century." - Thomas Poiss, Frankfurter Allegmeine Zeitung

"Overwhelmingly readable ... lyrical, meditative, ironical, funny or dramatic, Murray plays on an inexhaustible keyboard; he even reinvents it." - Claudio Gorlier, La Stampa

Fredy Boettcher is no visionary. He embodies reaction, the humane sort most people have when brought up against the horror which visions and causes may bring. In World War I Turkey, the sight of women being burned alive by a mob causes him to lose his sense of touch, as if he were burned himself. He must conceal and try to use this curse-gift over much of his subsequent life, which involves travels around the world, including to Hollywood, Arabia and Hitler's Germany.

Deliberately cast in non-literary language, Les Murray's profound study of moral shock teases out the potentials for peace, still not fully realised, which lie in multiculture and mixed heritage.

Click here to read a profile piece on Les Murray published in the Guardian newspaper.