Butler's Ringlet

by Laurence Fearnley

In this story of male friendship, Fearnley reproduces the cadences and rhythms of rural life and offers insight into a provincial male world seldom explored in recent New Zealand fiction. Best friends Warwick and Dean live in rural Southland. Dean, a farmer, is single and lonely - if only he'd admit it to himself. Warwick is caught between his love for a place and his love for Sabine and Ecki, his estranged wife and child now living in Germany. Dean observes Warwick's struggle but has problems of his a domineering father he neither loves nor respects, and on-going feelings of guilt and grief for his brother. Suddenly, Sabine and Ecki return to New Zealand, bringing the past with them to threaten the fragile worlds Warwick and Dean have created for themselves.

238 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2004

About the author

Laurence Fearnley is an award-winning novelist. Her novel The Hut Builder won the fiction category of the 2011 NZ Post Book Awards and was shortlisted for the international 2010 Boardman Tasker Prize for mountain writing. Her book Edwin and Matilda was runner-up in the 2008 Montana New Zealand Book Awards and her second novel, Room, was shortlisted for the 2001 Montana Book Awards. In 2004 Fearnley was awarded the Artists to Antarctica Fellowship and in 2007 the Robert Burns Fellowship at the University of Otago. Laurence Fearnley lives in Dunedin with her husband and son.

Reviews

[Bachyboy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a wonderful book and long after I finished it, I was still thinking about it. Two Southern men are looking for love and seem like typical farm boys. Yet Fearnley uncovers the richness of their thinking, their sensitivities, their dreams and their disappointments. I was so excited at the Mossburn, Te Anau setting, so close to home. Loved it.

[bethanyangharad · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most recent book I've finished for University this semester. I found it interesting once studied, but reading it through the first time I found it a bit slow. However, I still liked it for delving into a male kiwi perspective, and a lot of the metaphors were really deep.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Was OK, the ending was a bit confusing....but was an OK book to read