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The first Winton book I have read and I have come out of it massively impressed.

We are told the bitter tale of a man called Scully and his daughter Billie. Scully is desperately in love with his wife who, seemingly out of the blue, deserts him. With that event we eventually learn Scully and his wife are different. Scully is not that attractive. Hard worker that he is, Scully, is basically rustic. Unbeknownst to himself he is not part of the intellectual expatriate art set his wife is attracted to and seemingly part of. With that we get a portrait of a man out of his depth as he chases his heart and loses his mind. All this with a wise beyond her years daughter Billie in tow. Six year old Billie is seemingly unable to tell her father what happened when the mother put her on a plane and sent her to oblivion. But she has a love for her father that allows her to be dragged into his mental carnage and take him to the bitter ending that was always the only end.

The brilliance of this book is the way that the author has articulated how the mind of Scully broke down as he realised he was betrayed by what he held dear, that those he trusted where never trustworthy. The growing realisation that life can be bitter.

And The Riders? As the reader I was drawn to these ghostly characters that appear at the start and the end of Scully's journey. To me they were a metaphor for the chasers that never finds the answer.

Superb read for me personally.