"Inside the island, set in a farming district of western N. S. W. in 1912, demonstrates how a matriarchal imitation of English society is destroyed by an outbreak of 'holy fire', madness from a wheat fungus. In The Precious woman, the child-like Su-Ling, wife of a warrior governor in the China of the 20s, ... learns there is no place for compassion in the execution of social change"--Back cover.