Beyond the Breakwater brings together twenty-six outstanding short stories spanning half a century by an acclaimed master of the genre, O.E. Middleton. While Middleton has been linked with the masculine realist New Zealand tradition of Frank Sargeson and Roderick Finlayson, Beyond the Breakwater also contains a diverse range of international settings and characters, from Berthe Albrecht's postwar experiences of Paris in 'For Once in Your Life' to the secular London Eucharist of 'The Doss-house and the Duchess'. At his best, Middleton's attention to detail and fully realised context brings to mind earlier masters such as Yukio Mishima and Guy de Maupassant; in a typical Middleton story, carefully observed detail builds an impressionistic platform on which the destinies of his characters unravel.