Dow is born to be a woodcutter, being the eldest son, but finds his excitement quickly dulled once he begins his apprenticeship. But then he climbs to the headland on the edge of the forest and views the ocean for the first time. He is memsmerised - even more so when he sights great ships in the distance. But what use is a passion for the sea when you live in a village on the egde of the forest? And, what's more, where would such a notion come from?

Andrew McGahan has written a pleasing new world where these questions pose very difficult problems for Dow. Difficult, but not impossible. And even when it seems he will be able to follow a life which at least aproximates his heart's desire, unthoughtof barriers arise. New Island is his home. It was once a strong naval community, but has generations hence lost the ight to pursue a life on the seas. Now the people work to provide tribute to the Ship Kings - the nation that has ruled the seas since the Great War, generations ago. A life at sea is in fact forbidden to New Islanders.

The travails of Dow provide for an original and engaging story. I did find that the middle section of the novel spent too long on too few incidents, yet by the end I was immediately hoping that McGahan's publishers would get that second volume out quick smart.