This collection explores the existential quandaries of being torn between seemingly irreconcilable affections, identifications, and places of personal anchorage. Michael Jackson, born in Nelson, New Zealand, has forged a distinguished career as an anthropologist. The author of twenty-five books, he has won many accolades, including the Commonwealth Poetry Prize and the New Zealand Book Award for poetry. Since 2005 he has been a visiting professor of world religions at Harvard Divinity School, and in 2006 he was awarded an honorary doctorate from Victoria University of Wellington.