The experience of growing up in a poverty-stricken, working-class neighborhood in New Zealand begins this insightful memoir of one woman's life as she struggles to maintain dignity and develop her voice as a writer. A few months spent in an old kauri villa during childhood provide an opportunity for reading books by candlelight and listening to the call of the moreporks. A father whose leftist sensibilities offer a vision of a better world is among the characters who figure prominently in the narrative. A writer's eye for detail makes this memoir a moving and beautiful story.