A book about the power of love; and racing pigeons. Love is a flower of the spirit which can grow in strange places, even where you might imagine that nothing could survive. The story of 'The messenger' tells of a group of people living in a small mining village in the 1940s, where everyone kept racing pigeons. A brain damaged child brought up by a devoted father and a waspish aunt, learns to share her father's passion for racing pigeons. A unique cast of characters - Italian wartime immigrants, ice-cream makers, school masters, heartbroken spinsters, footloose shepherds - witness the emergence of an astonishing story. And there is death. When that comes, who can understand it? And can even the fastest pigeon in the world deliver a message to a dead man?