Winner of the 2000 Giller Prize, David Adams Richards weaves an intense story of love and honesty, an exploration of how humanity faces inhumanity, how lies and disappointments cannot and will never destroy truth and human greatness.  At the age of twelve, Sydney Henderson pushes his friend Connie Devlin from the church roof. Looking down on Connie’s motionless body, Sydney believes he is dead. Let Connie live and I will ever harm another soul, Sydney vows to God. At that moment, Connie stands up, wipes his bloody nose and with a laugh walks away. In the years that follow, the self-educated, brilliant and now almost pathologically gently Sydney holds true to his promise.