Michael O'Leary tells the story of factory worker Patrick Mika Fitzgerald, who after several years of working at the same job and looking after his ailing mother, is freed from these ties by death and redundancy. He embarks on an existential train journey in pursuit of a woman he has dreamed of meeting. When reality and dreams colide his world is turned into a previously unknown state of moral real dilema.

Responses to Michael O'Leary's novel Unlevel Crossings

'Unlevel Crossings is a Joycean language experience and partly it's a literary and political satire, but I think it's also a down-to-earth book about recent changes in New Zealand society.'

Iain Sharp, Sunday Star Times feature article 16/06/02

'A wonderful pageant...'

'The book is rich with Māori poetry, Māori vocabulary, and not ostentatious...'

'The book is totally natural ... and astonishing textured language ...'

'... a very rewarding book indeed ...'

'... Michael O'Leary is a very distinctive and very singular writer and person in New Zealand ...'

'... it's a lovely magic exploration on all sorts of levels ...'

David Hill, reviewer, Radio New Zealand 31/07/02

'Michael O'Leary ... has a poet's love of the sounds of words ...'

Gavin McLean, reviewer, Otago Daily Times 17/08/02

'This gets my vote as the most original New Zealand novel of the year.'

Iain Sharp, Reviewer, Sunday Star Times 18/08/02

'O'Leary can pull out the most heartfelt prose, particularly when describing the natural beauty of this land.'

Michael Larson, reviewer, New Zealand Herald 20/08/02

'It is a splendidly droll novel, memorably comic in its unlevel absurdities, its crossover jesting.'

David Eggleton, in JAAM 19, 2003.