Margaret Mahy is not only a writer but a poet, and her prose in this novel is one of its most outstanding qualities.

Her descriptions are always succinct.

For example, she describes the drunk Jonny searching the telephone book for Bonny's name: The names darted around the page just ahead of where he was looking, like black wrigglers in a murky pond, but by narrowing his eyes and pinning the words down one at a time with his wavering finger he could hold them still long enough to read them.

But it is her poetic quality, perhaps best used in her descriptions of Janine's accident and her comments on memory, which puts her writing on a level with many of the finest writers for adults.

Another strength of the novel is that it works on several levels. Mahy draws on the archetypal idea that salvation lies...