The Last Letter of Godfrey Cheathem

As Vladimir Nabokov expert Professor Brian Bode writes in his foreword to Godfrey Cheathem's last letter: "... I was able to play a prominent role in bringing his remarkable novel 'Chasing the Fading Light' to worldwide attention. As was shown in my biography of Godfrey Cheathem (a New York Times #1 bestseller for 28 weeks), this was despite my doubts that a New Zealander - or, more particularly, THIS son of New Zealand - could have penned what is now recognised as not only a supreme Antipodean novel, but also as the novel that may yet prove to be one of the greatest of this new Oceanic century". Traumatised by his failure to match the creative successes of his precocious younger siblings - early over-achievers in theatre, music and fine arts - Godfrey Cheathem never expects that his baffling experimental pottery will one day lead him to the unlikely heights of international book publishing. There he meets a mysterious artist, a pivotal encounter on a journey of self-discovery that points up some of the many absurdities of New Zealand life and culture, and culminates in Godfrey's comic yet anguished unravelling at a grand reunion at the Cheathem turangawaewae, the farm that has been in his wider family for generations. Godfrey Cheathem died not long after completing his last letter in his cell in Paparua prison, never living to see the publication of his great novel. Cheathem's letter is written to his sister, and tries to explain the events that led to his imprisonment.