The poet's ongoing love affair with his Central Otago home lies at the heart of this rich and compelling new collection that explores the politics of relationships and relationships themselves. Through a combination of people and place that gives the poems color and humor, the volume also examines friendship, politics, death, and the machinations of the modern business world. The mountains and lakes of the central South Island have a strong presence in the imagery, while wry observations of people in that landscape move the collection far beyond the confines of simple landscape poetry.

Brian Turner is a poet, an essayist, a biographer, and an editor who is considered to be one of New Zealand's most significant writers on landscape, environmentalism, and sports. He was the New Zealand Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2005 and is a recipient of both the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the New Zealand Book Award for Poetry. He is the author of Images of Coastal Otago, New Zealand High Country: Four Seasons, and The Last Rivers Song and the coauthor of Opening Up and Timeless Land.