An overview of New Zealand writing, with essays, fiction and poetry from leading and new writers. Includes Nelson poets Rachel Bush and Rae Varcoe in its list of literary luminaries.
Partly an attempt to recapture the experiences of her Oxford childhood and youth (in Shakespeare's phrase, to 'call back yesterday, bid time return'), but also a chronicle of the progress of her love of history since her first discovery of it as a private pleasure when she was a child in the 1930s - her history, as she believed it to be, for the study of history (as her books subsequently attest) has always been an essential part of her enjoyment of life. Beautifully written and evocative, as always.
“It is usual for people attracted to each other to pretend they have full and busy lives but I have an incredible facility to wade through human shame with no shoes on.”
Ten stories from Deborah Levy (shortlisted in 2013 for the Booker in for Swimming Home), mapping the razor-wire confines, ambivalent portals and subtle absurdities of love.
>> The author susurrates on her books.
John Baxter enchanted readers with his literary tour of Paris in The Most Beautiful Walk in the World. Now, this expat who has lived in the City of Light for more than twenty years introduces you to the city's streets after dark, revealing hidden treasures and unexpected delights. With Baxter as your guide, you will discover the City of Light as never before, walking in the ghostly footsteps of Marcel Proust, nocturnal photographer Brassai, Henry Miller, the Surrealists in search of the city's shadowed magic, and Josephine Baker and other performers who dazzled Parisians at late-night jazz clubs.
The stepping-stone between Europe and Africa, the gateway between the East and the West, at once a stronghold, clearing-house and observation-post, Sicily has been invaded and fought over by Phoenicians and Greeks, Carthaginians and Romans, Goths and Byzantines, Arabs and Normans, Germans, Spaniards and the French for thousands of years.
Tibble is a reporter. He only ever writes about cats, and he's about to be fired. Minou is a young woman who has moved into Tibble's flat. She hates dogs, likes rooftops, loves the fishmonger, and happens to have been, until very recently, a cat. With her feline friends listening out for all the local human news, is Minou the answer to all Tibble's problems - or just the beginning of them?
With tales of lost gold reefs, a forgotten fishing community, the immigration stories of The Wood’s tomato growers and the community’s experiences as enemy aliens in World War II, to the contemporary embracing of all things Italian – food, culture and festivals, this is the colourful history behind Nelson’s own Little Italy.
"Once there was a boy who had to leave home... and find another. In his bag he carried a book, a bottle and a blanket. In his teacup he held some earth from where he used to play."
A beautiful, subtle, thoughtful picture-book about displacement and starting anew.
In this delicious recipe-filled memoir, the author, with the husband she met in Lunch in Paris and their newborn child, go to live in a tiny rural village in Provence - land of blue skies, lavender fields and peaches that taste like sunshine. This is the story of how they embarked on a new adventure and became culinary entrepreneurs, starting an artisanal ice cream shop and experimenting with local ingredients like saffron, sheep's milk yogurt and olive oil.
Two babies are left in a Tokyo station coin locker and survive against the odds, but their lives are forever tainted by this inauspicious start. As they grow up, they join the ranks of Toxitown: a district of addicts, freaks and prostitutes.
"A cyber-Bildungsroman of playful breadth and uncertain depth." - Publishers Weekly
"Like a cross between a Grimms' fairy tale and Katsuhiro Otomo's classic manga comic series Akira. A deliriously ambitious novel that recalls Thomas Pynchon." - Times Literary Supplement
19 year-old Chani lives in the ultra-orthodox Jewish community of North West London. She has never had physical contact with a man, but is bound to marry a stranger. The rabbi's wife teaches her what it means to be a Jewish wife, but Rivka has her own questions to answer. Soon buried secrets, fear and sexual desire bubble to the surface...
"Harris's eye for suburban social mores is wickedly acute, as is her evident relish in describing both the sensual life and its absence. Her book has the potential to be that rare thing – a crowd-pleaser about Orthodox Judaism." - Guardian
New Zealand is one of the world's oldest democracies for men and women, Maori and Pakeha, with one of the highest political participation rates. But, from MMP to leadership primaries, spin doctors to 'dirty politics', the country's political system is undergoing rapid change. Democracy in New Zealand provides an up-to-date and concise introduction to New Zealand politics and how it works.
Why don't flight attendants get tipped? If you were a terrorist, how would you attack? Why does KFC always run out of fried chicken? Why do taller people tend to make more money? Why is it so hard to predict the Kentucky Derby winner? Is it time for a sex tax (if not a fat tax)? A wonderful miscellany from the authors of Freakonomics.
>> The Freakonomics website.
In the republic of Georgia, the Communists are long gone, replaced by something much more confusing. There are no jobs in the cities. And when there are jobs, employees aren't compensated. And when they are compensated, it's because the jobs are not strictly scrupulous. When Slims discovers an application for an American small business internship program sponsored by Hillary Clinton, he knows that he has found his calling. Slims dreams of bringing opportunity and the American dream to his homeland. But when he finally gets to America he sees what reform and progress look like up close. And suddenly, his loud, bickering family and his anguished country no longer seem so grim.
When the moment for Gene to take Nancy to her desired death in Coffeeville arrives, she is unexpectedly admitted to the secure unit of a nursing home and he has to call upon his two remaining friends to help break her out: one his godson, a disgraced weatherman in the throes of a midlife crisis, and the other an ex-army marksman officially dead for 40 years. On a tour bus once stolen from Paul McCartney, and joined by a young orphan boy searching for lost family, the band of misfits career towards Mississippi...
"Heart-warming. Black humour and the charm of The Unlikely Pilgrimage of Harold Fry." - Daily Mail
In this remarkable blend of memoir and criticism, James Wood, one of the foremost critics of our time, has written a master class on the connections between fiction and life. He argues that, of all the arts, fiction has a unique ability to describe the shape of our lives, and to rescue the texture of those lives from death and historical oblivion.
>> Read Chapter 2.
Mythmaking is as central to sustaining our economy as proft-making, particularly as severe environmental degradation, breathtaking inequality, and increasing alienation among youth push capitalism against its own contradictions. Enter the new prophets of capital. In this moment of crisis, a new generation of wealthy mythmakers, masquerading as progressive thinkers, has emerged to portray the free market as the solution to society's problems.
Powerful microbes that make up 90% of the human body. You are just 10% human. For every one of the cells that make your body, there are nine impostor cells. You are not just flesh and blood, muscle and bone, brain and skin, but bacteria and fungi. You are not an individual, but a colony of microbes. Far from being passive, the trillions of microbes that live on and in you are intimately involved in running your body. Even aspects that you think of entirely as 'you' turn out to be run by 'them' - like your immune system.
Eleven of New Zealand's best cartoonists take a speculative stab at the looming threat of climate change in this thoughtful, provoking and sometimes hilarious, comic collection. With tales ranging from washed-up celebrity polar bears, to giant post-apocalyptic crabs, High Water takes the reader on a thrilling romp through one of the most important issues of our time. Contributors include Dylan Horrocks (Hicksville, Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen), Sarah Laing (A Fall of Light) and Chris Slane (Nice Day For a War).
Wang Daifu is blind and works as a practitioner of tuina, a traditional form of pressure-point massage, in the burgeoning metropolis of Shenzhen. His is a uniquely coveted skill, yet it is one of the few options open to the visually impaired in China. When he loses his life savings on the stock market he returns to his provincial hometown, fiancée in tow, to work for an old classmate. But the transition is not easy as Wang struggles to deal with his own career frustration, his brother's gambling troubles, and the pressures of pleasing his wife-to-be.
>> An interview with the author.
A young secular writer's journey along ancient religious pilgrimage routes in Spain, Japan and Ukraine leads to a surprise family reconciliation in this literary memoir.
"A very honest, very smart, very moving book about being young and rootless and even wayward. With great compassion and zeal Lewis-Kraus gets at the question: why search the world to solve the riddle of your own heart?" - Dave Eggers
"If David Foster Wallace had written Eat, Pray, Love it might have come close to approximating the adventures of Gideon Lewis-Kraus." - Gary Shteyngart
Lost and alone a forbidden forest, Otto meets three mysterious sisters and suddenly finds himself entwined in a puzzling quest involving a prophecy, a promise, and a harmonica. Decades later, Friedrich in Germany, Mike in Pennsylvania, and Ivy in California each, in turn, become interwoven when the very same harmonica lands in their lives. All the children face daunting challenges: rescuing a father, protecting a brother, holding a family together.
"A grand narrative that examines the power of music to inspire beauty in a world overrun with fear and intolerance, it's worth every moment of readers' time." - Kirkus
Simon, on the cusp of middle age, leaves England in search of adventure and finds Senegal, love, witch doctors, a surprise baby son, and a piece of land that could make a perfect guest house, if only he could work out how to build one.
Every girl dreams of being part of the line - the chosen seven who tunnel deep into the mountain to find the harvest. No work is more important. Jena is the leader of the line - strong, respected, reliable. And - as all girls must be - she is small; her years of training have seen to that. It is not always easy but it is the way of the things. And so a girl must wrap her limbs, lie still, deny herself a second bowl of stew. Or a first. But what happens when one tiny discovery makes Jena question everything she has ever known? What happens when moving a single stone changes everything?
Flavia de Luce, 12-year-old detective, chemistry enthusiast and would-be poisoner, is back in another of Bradley's very enjoyable mysteries. After shocking revelations about her mother's death, Flavia has been forced to leave Buckshaw and has been sent to a girls' academy in Canada. Why do the students disappear with frightful regularity? What is the true purpose of the academy?
If you haven't met Flavia de Luce yet, start with The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie (murder! philately! cups of tea!).
Ben Chambers wakes up to find something rusty and lost underneath the willow tree in his garden. Refusing to throw it on the skip as his wife Amy advises, he takes it home. This is the story of the greatest friendship every assembled!
"An unusual and delightful book." - Alexander McCall Smith
Billions of citizens around the world are frustrated with their governments. Political leaders struggle to honour their promises and officials find it near impossible to translate ideas into action. The result? High taxes, but poor outcomes. Cynicism not just with government but with the political process. Why is this? How could this vicious spiral be reversed?
In her memoir Bedsit Disco Queen, Thorn gave a hugely readable account of her life in the band Everything But the Girl. Now she turns her attention to what she actually did in all those years: sing. Part memoir, part wide-ranging exploration of the art, mechanics and spellbinding power of singing, Naked at the Albert Hall takes in Dusty Springfield, Dennis Potter and George Eliot; Auto-tune, the microphone and stage presence; The Streets and The X Factor, and includes interviews with fellow artists such as Alison Moyet, Romy Madley-Croft and Green Gartside of Scritti Politti, and portraits of singers in fiction as well as Tracey's real-life experiences.
With algorithms tracking and predicting your every desire and decision, just how free are you?
Laurence Walker wants to be President of the United States. He's a sure thing: adored by the public, ex-military, a real family man. A good man. But then ClearVista, the world's foremost prediction software, tells the world his chances. And not only will he not be President, but it predicts that he's going to do the worst thing he can imagine. But can he change that destiny?
"A writer of bold imagination and verve." - Lauren Beukes
"Savage, intimate and inexorable." - Nick Harkaway
"Powerful and distinctive." - Guardian
"Smythe's storytelling is pacey and addictive; he has a fiendish talent for springing surprises." - The Times Literary Supplement
Does the latest neurological research shed new light on philosophy's most unanswerable question?
From the moment Ellen arrives, she can feel something stirring in the old house. It's almost as if it's alive. Is there a ghost, as the kids at her new school say? Or is it something stranger? And why is there a tower with no door? When the dried-up fountain in the overgrown garden suddenly spouts water and weird messages appear, Ellen must find her way into the mysterious, magical and dangerous world that has been waiting for her...
In 2010, it was revealed that a man who had been resident in a small Himalayan hill town was in fact the Dalai Lama's older brother and was a pivotal interlocutor between Tibet and foreign leaders from Chiang Kai-shek to Jawaharlal Nehru, Zhou Enlai to Deng Xiaoping. Now he tells his story.
When Adam meets Robyn at a support group for kids coping with obsessive-compulsive disorder, he is drawn to her almost before he can take a breath. He's determined to protect and defend her, to play Batman to her Robin, whatever the cost. But when you're fourteen and the everyday problems of dealing with divorced parents and step-siblings are supplemented by the challenges of OCD, it's hard to imagine yourself falling in love.
In this simple story about grief, and the continuation of life, a tortoise mourns her lost friend, learns to live alone, and finds ways of being happy again.
"A treasure - a real find - and one of the most enjoyable children's books I've read in a while. This is a tortoise that deserves to win every literary race." - Observer
Birds do strange things (at least these things seem strange to us). Why do Male Fairywrens bring flowers to females as a nuptial gift in the pre-dawn darkness? Especially when the gift-givers are not the official mates of the females concerned, but visitors, and furthermore they may give these gifts in full view of the official mate. Why do gangs of White-winged Choughs "kidnap" their neighbors' fledglings and then keep them in their "gang"? Do cassowarries kill humans ?
The violence we perceive in the "wild" is a matter of projection. Animals predators kill to survive, but animal aggression is not even remotely equivalent to the violence of mankind. Humans are the most violent animals to our own kind in existence. We lack what all other animals have: a check on the aggression that would destroy the species rather than serve it.
A stand-alone novel completing Reynolds' loose trilogy, which includes Blue Remembered Earth and On the Steel Breeze. Set in the distant future, after humans have travelled to other stars and encountered mysterious aliens known as Watchkeepers, the novel depicts the search for a method of faster-than-light travel.
"Grand, involving and full of light and wonder. One of the best sci-fi novels of the year." - SciFi Now
>> Good advice.
When her father meets his unfortunate end, Jocelyn sails to Neverland to avenge his death. But she hasn't bargained on ticking crocodiles, lazy pirates and a troublemaking boy called Peter Pan.
"Sue Miller is a very readable author. She paints of picture of small town life which is both lively and stultifying. If you have enjoyed any of Miller’s previous novels you should read this." - Marie
Signing on at Greymouth's Elmer Lane depot in 1962, a young Ian Tibbles very quickly learnt the mysteries of "the dark shed". Graduating from labourer to cleaner and then fireman, his apprenticeship takes us on a journey about the West Coast in the 1960's, the golden age of steam. Starting on the wharf and local shunts on Wf's Ian moved onto the main lines, then populated with A, Ab, B, J, We and Ww class engines.
A nurse aide position in the local maternity annexe at the age of sixteen gave Julie a love for being with women during labour and birth and caring for mothers and their babies. Life could not have been happier until the tragic death of her own baby in the first hour of life led to depression, loneliness and despair. This true story tells of Julie's struggle to triumph over adversity and follows her journey to fulfil her dream and become the midwife she was born to be.
Includes 'Vermouth the Bell Tolls', 'Gin Eyre', 'Are You There God? It's Me, Margarita' and 'Bridget Jones's Daiquiri'. Chortle into your glass.
