Traitor (Daisley novel)


Traitor is a novel by New Zealand author Stephen Daisley. It won the Prime Minister's Literary Award in Australia in 2011 for Best Fiction.

Plot summary

Young New Zealand soldier David Monroe is fighting at Gallipoli in World War I when he meets a Turkish doctor, Mohammad. As they tend to a wounded soldier a bomb bursts nearby and both are sent to an army hospital on the island of Lemnos. The novel explores the growing friendship between the two men, and two cultures, as they recover from their wounds.

Review

in The Australian noted: "At its best, Daisley's prose possesses a shimmering, allusive beauty reminiscent of John McGahern. Sequences such as the stunning description of the ageing David's journey out into a rainy morning to supervise the lambing lend the novel an almost sacred quality."

Awards and nominations