On the day the plane brought the white man to the island, Managua, being the only islander who could read and write, was, as usual, preoccupied with his translation of Hamlet. The island had welcomed visitors before, of course. The British had been there and had left their language, and Shakespeare. Then the Americans with their military base, its soldiers and guns. But what to make of this new arrival, this young lawyer from America with his fervent belief in doing the right thing? Managua sensed that William Hardt's coming to the island would change everything.
This achingly funny, rich and supremely moving novel confirms John Harding as one of contemporary fiction's most entertaining and observant chroniclers of the human condition.
