With the publication of this initially daunting, progressively more and more absorbing, and ultimately radiant book, Hugh Hood concludes The New Age, the epic cycle of 12 novels that he began with The Swing in the Garden in 1975. Near Water is not absolutely perfect – the first chapter could be condensed by about two pages and subsequent chapters by occasional passages – but the book is near-perfect, as well as stunningly original. Surprisingly, although it represents the conclusion to a multipart work, it can be readily enjoyed (if not fully appreciated) without knowledge of the preceding novels.

Near Water is structured in nine chapters, and its action, much like Homer’s story of Odysseus, follows the return home of its protagonist: in this case, to the lakeside family cottage outside Athens, Ontario, on Midsummer weekend in the year 2011. Here, 81-year-old art historian Matthew Goderich anticipates being rejoined by his long-estranged wife, the painter Edie Codrington, his Penelope. But shortly after arriving at the cottage and sauntering down to relax on the dock, still-solitary Matthew suffers a near-paralyzing stroke.

The narrative focuses on Matthew’s meditations about the immediate present, the past, and the future. Terrified at the prospect of death – or, worse, of an even more debilitating stroke – Matthew struggles, for close to 24 hours, to crawl up the path to the cottage and then to mount the nine steps up to the deck looking out on the lake. There, seated in a swing that recalls the long-ago opening image of The Swing in the Garden, Matthew is graced by, is embraced by, a final vision of divine presence.

Metaphysics, mystical theology, narrative, poetry or prayer, bodily feeling, unconsciousness or dreaming, detachment, spiritual intuition, and ultimately divine love: chapter by chapter, Near Water dexterously employs a succession of nine different modes of understanding or styles. For the uncommonly careful readers for whom Hood has always written, the book reveals itself to be an odyssey of style. The esthetic, emotional, and spiritual resonances of this method are beyond calculation. With this luminous final installment of The New Age, Hugh Hood has written Matthew Goderich into eternity.