The Village of Pointless Conversation

The book that spawned Finding Fanny

'It doesn't matter where you go' I tell them. 'Travelling just means getting out of where you were.' Which is my half-assed way of saying if they have stumbled through my doorway they are lost as hell. Off the guidebook grid. Bumfuck nowhere in other words.

Pocolim is a little village somewhere - or nowhere - in Goa. It is home to Ferdie the postman who sets out to find his long-lost love Millie. Along for the ride in a recently repaired vintage car are the most unlikely companions: his friend Angie the sweet virginal widow; her mother-in-law the extraordinarily corpulent and bossy Rosalina Eucharistica; renowned painter Don Pedro who finds lost inspiration in the vastness of Rosalina's body; and Savio friend of Angie's late husband and once contender for her love. On the road resentments ambitions bitterness and desires come to a boil; as disturbing secrets tumble out redemption strikes where they least expect it.

The Village of Pointless Conversation is a sensuous funny full-bodied affair shot through with quiet gloom that peels off the thin skin of pretence under which lie all our human absurdities.