Black earth, white bones

Kit Wallace has spent his whole life running away. Through luck and lack of purpose he has finally washed up in the Pacific nation of Ventiak. Here, on the top floor of the Royal Albert Hotel, he avoids his past by drinking whisky and writing poetry he fully intends no one should ever read. Yet, despite himself, he has been drawn into the lives of the people around him. When he is invited to join a scam in the phosphate industry, which will defraud the Ventiakans of millions of dollars, he is torn between disbelief, self-serving cynicism and a loyalty that takes him by surprise. His life begins to unravel and he is forced into action. Meanwhile, in the upland forest, the Rage is beginning: a periodic rampage of millions of ants will sweep over the island, carrying all before it.