'Janet Frame was a unique and troubled soul whose luminous words are the more precious' HILARY MANTEL'Her dark, eloquent song captured my heart' JANE CAMPION'All my preoccupations as a writer - my notions of home, beauty, madness of sorts and longing - come from her' MEG MASONThere is nothing in the world the matter with me, except that I have been bathed in a trough and dipped under a waterfall and the pine-needles picked from my scars. . . This is the story of the Withers family: Francie, soon to leave school to start work at the woollen mills; Toby, whose days are marred by the velvet cloak of epilepsy; Chicks, the baby of the family; and Daphne, whose rich poetic way of seeing the world leads to a heartbreaking life in institutions. A dazzling, fierce cry of darkness and joy, Janet Frame's debut novel is a poetic masterpiece and a timeless classic of New Zealand literature.INTRODUCED BY MARGARET DRABBLE 'The first great New Zealand novel and a modernist masterpiece . . . the book's immense power to unnerve, astonish and impress endures' Guardian