This collection of elegies for dead friends and a past love is also a tribute to poet Tracy Ryan's embattled but joyous life on a plot of land in the bush. In a long sequence addressed to her Swiss-German first husband, Ryan delves into the feelings found with unresolved grief and lost love and the ambivalent emotions that remain after severing intense relationships. The universal themes from one of Australia's most gifted scribes is a must read for anyone with an interest in poetry.