Laerg , forbidding and mysterious, rising our of the Atlantic like the peaks of a submerged continent, provides a perfect setting for the story of two brothers, one an artist, the other a soldier. For both of them the lonely island holds a fatal fascination.

At last, on the island itself, the brothers confront each other, and the soldier's tragic secret is torn from him in one of the most powerful scenes this master storyteller has ever written.

"This powerful storm-racked, rock hard novel demands to be judged by Conradian standards."