Sewing Moonlight

It’s winter of 1928, and young German man Wilhelm Erdinger is left stranded in the remote New Zealand village of Falter’s Mill.

Wilhelm purchases a piece of land capable of providing the kind of sustainable, self-sufficient life he craves, and a shack he soon begins to call home. Though he is regarded with suspicion by many in the local community, he soon attracts a small number of friends, each outsiders in their own way.

With a little help from the ecological theories of Steiner and the poetic inspirations of Goethe, Wilhelm survives, at times even flourishes, in a country rocked by the effects of war and the Depression. However, it is the arrival of a new war – coupled with the sometimes-brutal climate of Central Otago – that threatens to destroy the utopia he has created.

Sewing Moonlight is a tragic tale of love, loss and biodynamics in a challenging time. More than this, it is a story of one man’s journey from alienation to acceptance. Like the moon, which looms large over everything, each ending is also a new beginning.

Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
Imprint: David Bateman
Publication date: 08/04/2024