Still in the same mental hospital as the author's previous novel, Len Tarbutt is given more freedom and occupational therapy.

He uses his writing as a means of maintaining his sanity and finally wins a poetry prize.

While the themes he explores are profound, Kocan's prose is spare and direct.

He is a skilful builder of tension and he handles his characters with superb sensitivity...Kocan's use of humour, to both temper and accentuate the horrors of mental hospital life, adds greatly to the impact of this impressive and disturbing book.

"[2] After its original publication in 1983 in Australia by publisher Angus and Robertson[3] the novel was later collected with the author's previous novel, The Treatment, and republished as follows: