Set in Auckland during the 1998 power blackout, this wonderfully gentle, wry, funny and profound novel follows the thoughts and activities of Megan Sligo, a clothes mender, as she is drawn into a web of deceit around a cheating husband. He brings her a vintage Irish costume to repair, and she becomes so drawn in by his stories of death and tragedy in the Belfast history of his family, and the mystery of his infidelity, that she keeps him coming back by telling him that the repair is not finished. The tension around what she is going to do about her increasing, but reluctant, attraction to him, and her need to face the truth about her own life and marriage, keep the pace of the novel driving along. Megan, known as GoGo, is a very astute observer of others; she is a charming companion, and becomes someone the reader knows better than she knows herself. This is a warm and affectionate novel, but with a dark shadow just below the surface, and it reaches a tense and unpredictable conclusion as the power comes back on. I wasn't sure that I was gong to enjoy this book, but I did, hugely. The reader is drawn in by GoGo's storytelling, it's as though you're being told a story by a good friend, a story you don't want to end. Terrific stuff, the Auckland setting is convincing and evocative, the detail around the difficulty of living without power drawn with humour. This book deserves to do very well.