At the twilight of the stone age, an isolated village lives in relative prosperity. A young man, a one-armed dreamer unable to work the stone, elects himself the village storyteller, and hunts restlessly, far and wide, for inspiration. But the information he finds and the people he meets warn of a fissure in their world: the advent of a new age and the coming of a metal that will change their community's life irrevocably. 'A tour de force, finely and firmly written. Crace is a virtuoso' Frank Kermode 'His work is among the most original in comtemporary fiction' "The Times"