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'Witty, poetic, clairvoyant' John Updike

The Reverend Timothy Fortune, ex-clerk of the Hornsey branch of Lloyds Bank, has found his vocation: to convert the inhabitants of the remote tropical island of Fanua to Christianity. Even when everyone except for a young boy called Lueli remains indifferent to his preaching, Mr Fortune's good spirits cannot be dampened - until one day his faith is put to a terrible test.

'This quizzical tale is so intensely moving' Gillian Beer, New Statesman

'Original, elegant and hypnotically strange' Miranda Seymour, The New York Times

'Sylvia Townsend Warner pursues the psychology of the story with beautiful accuracy' John Carey