IN THE HALF LIGHT

Already published overseas to widespread acclaim, this novel by prolific Australian poet Lawrence is an intensive, haunting coming-of-age tale centering on a boy's struggle with schizophrenia in Sydney. Fragile James Molloy, the story's narrator, is a tortured teenager who immediately acknowledges that he was "a very strange child," since in frequent out-of-body incidents he saw "headlights" and heard bells and voices that spoke words seemingly "held together by strings and hooks of light." As James matures, his "gift" becomes a burden as the fainting spells (now accompanied by incoherent speech) begin to frighten those around him. His first foray into romance is with a shop girl named Stephanie, also diagnosed as schizophrenic, and while she befriends James and he grows to love her, she soon disappears. James's parents, struggling to hold together a failing marriage, take him to several doctors for psychoanalysis. When prescribed medication alleviates the "headlights," James hitchhikes into the bush, where he meets Colin, a strange loner living in a mountain cabin. A homecoming of "tears and tea and cake" resumes James's mostly unhappy life, compounded by the separation of his parents and a new relationship that ends tragically. Inspired by a book about Ireland left for him by Stephanie, James sets off for the faraway island, where pub life and a new fiddler friend named Sarah give him fresh reason to live and some sense of normalcy. The author presents a helpless, mentally unstable protagonist with enough dark baggage to sink a battleship, but thanks to Lawrence's poetic prose and steady pacing, his narration shines, making this unusual story enlightening and thought provoking. (June)

Forecast:As yet unknown in the U.S., Lawrence will likely be warmly received by reviewers, though it may take him a few more books to build up name recognition among readers.