Well-crafted story of a seamstress

Megan Sligo (GoGo to her friends) is a seamstress taking time out from her studies and enjoying Doing, not just Thinking. In her business she sees the seedier side of rips and tears, as her clients' clothes reveal all sorts of indiscretions.

Happily married, she normally floats serenely superior above such matters. All this changes with the arrival of a ripped Irish dancing costume.

Set against the five-week blackout in Auckland in 1998, GoGo finds herself being drawn into the lives of a client, his wife, his lover and the dress. As she repairs, re-repairs and pretends to repair the dress, the client slowly reveals the story of his family's life in Northern Ireland, why they fled and why the dress is so important.

Author Anne Kennedy, an award-winning poet, has crafted a story full of imagery and insights on the perplexing issues of fidelity, identity and alterations.

- Laura Hewson is an ODT subeditor