Vin santo, a strong, intensely sweet wine, was made by islanders in certain parts of the Mediterranean, from grapes that were laid out to sweeten on hot granite ledges in the autumn sun. Each of these elegiac novellas fuses traditional narrative and poetic prose to explore the naked feelings of loss. That sweetest of wines kindles implacable absence held in memory -- yet fortifies lingering hope.

The island villagers in Breath of the Earth recall the misery and joys of past lives, the heroes in battle against pirates and harsh gods, and their natural world now slipping away. In Rat in the Boardroom, the founder of an economic empire lies abandoned to his dotage on his sick bed, possessing a blindness which will inflict his descendants. In the final novella, Touch of Dust, a man's life is played out against a background chorus of his mother, his father, and his wives. Free-spirited youth, soldier in the Second World War,ß painter, sailor, outcast, lover-- he was all of these, and none, and yet...