This major novel merges contemporary headlines with stories of a heartfelt family history. 'Do you hear the people calling?' 'No.' 'See there, dummy, you're nowhere near dead.' 'Well, I don't believe you. How would you know?' 'Of course I know, I do, I do, I know all about it . . .' Tawera and his sister are inseparable, in a relationship that is impossible for others to share. In fact his whole whanau is bonded by secrets, a genealogy stitched together by shame, joy, love and sometimes grief. This is an account of the mysteries that operate at many levels between generations, where the present is the pivot, the centre of the spiral, looking outward to the past and future that define it. There's a way the older people have of telling a story, a way where the beginning is not the beginning, the end is not the end . . .