This novel continues Anthony Burgess's Malayan Trilogy, "The Long Day Wanes" and picks up the story from the close of its predecessor "Time for a Tiger" with Victor Crabbe and his wife Fenella landing in the state of Dahaga where Victor is to take up the position of principal at the local school.

Things get off to a rocky start with Crabbe's arrival being resented by Jaganathan, vice-principal of the school who had expected to be promoted and sees Crabbe's appointment as symptomatic of the manner in which Tamils are overlooked in favour of less capable European rivals. There is also considerable froideur between the Crabbes arising from an anonymous letter to Fenella informing her of her husband's only recently terminated affair with a local woman. Things go from bad to worse when they are not met at the airport, though they do eventually meet Talbot, the British Council chief for their area, Talbot is a disappoiitned poet who seems to be permanently hungry. Talbot's wife is disaffected by their lot but seems cheered by the arrival of two new British neighbours. Victor also meets Rupert Hardman, an old friend from university days, who is on his uppers, struggling to find work as a solicitor and contemplating a loveless marriage to a wealthy local woman, though this would entail his adoption of Islam.

Burgess lived in Malaya throughout the period depicted in the novel and was well aware of the tensions between the different ethnic groups, and this is conveyed marvellously through the relationships between the various characters, none of whom is entirely empathetic, though all of them are utterly believable.

I don't want to see too much more about the plot for fear of inadvertently letting slip the odd spoiler, but I am certainly eager to read the final instalment to see how the various plotlines are resolved. ( )