I am still moving despite the fact that this dreamed-up bastard Khan walks with me—no, he doesn’t walk with me, he rises up to fire, has my life in his hands, my head in his sights, and that is the image of all images that I have somehow to lose.

Johnny Shoebridge has just returned from fighting in the jungles of Vietnam. He no longer carries a weapon—only photos of the dead and a dread of the living. Pursued by a Viet Cong ghost-fighter called Khan, Johnny makes one last stand—knowing that if he cannot lay this specter to rest, he will remain a prisoner of war for ever. Drawing on courage, loyalty and love, Johnny tries to find a way back from the nightmare of war to a sense of hope for the future. An elegant and deeply moving novel, set in the aftermath of the Vietnam War, by one of Australia’s finest writers.