West’s last, unfinished novel (he died at his desk as he wrote it) is a strong story of the philosopher and heretic Giordano Bruno, who was burnt by the Inquisition for his heresy in 1600.
From the foreword by Thomas Keneally: "Bruno was that perilous thing, a free spirit, and suffered death for his right to certain concepts. I knew from conversations with Morris that Giordano Bruno was a soul mate, someone with whose life history Morris’ identified, even though Morris possessed a somewhat less strident temperament than Bruno’s. "Failed priest," as Morris has Bruno declare in this tale, "fugitive monk, magus with a box of conjuring tricks, boaster, prevaricator, would-be torchbearer trudging through his own darkness, garrulous in dialogue, viperous in debate."
