Damien Wilkins — Nineteen Widows Under Ash

Victoria University Press 2000 Paperback, 324pp. Evelyn has left her home and her husband. She has taken her thirteen-year-old daughter two thousand miles across the USA to her childhood home. The drizzly Pacific Northwest suits Evelyn's mood perfectly. She takes small doses of liquor from a secret supply and spends her time smoking under wet trees in the company of a hen. But her home town has more on its mind than Evelyn's troubles. The volcano that sits on the horizon has suddenly become active. Scientists, tourists, thrill-seekers flood the district. Evelyn tries to ignore it. She cannot, however, ignore the phone calls she starts receiving following a car accident. Who is the caller? What does he want? As the eruption increases, the questions at the heart of this bold, beautiful and endlessly surprising novel turn out to be the simplest issues of life and death. Small red stamp of a cartoon bee on first page and the top edge of the page block. Cover spine faded. (ISBN: 9780864733955). Good.