A family of rats is forced to leave their home, so sets out to find the fabled city of Ratenburg. Along the way they outwit vicious dogs, tricky rat traps and sharp-beaked hawks, and make some very dangerous crossings. The rat family's adventures test their character and grow bonds between sisters and brothers, family friends, mother and father.
It’s Wellington, now. Acoustic Engineer Michael Stirling’s old life is gone. He’s on the dating scene, learning te reo Maori, living in an upmarket apartment complex, and visiting his father who has dementia. Wearing his online dating disguise, Michael meets Chrissie, the widowed mother of a young son. Then his beloved adult daughter arrives from Auckland with a new attachment, an artist whose project will push them all towards key moments of risk and revelation. Wilkins is hugely adept at capturing the characters and situations memorably in a few words.
>> "Fiction is sloppy and that is its strength."
The devastating earthquake that hit Christchurch in 2011 did more than rupture the surface of the city, argues historian Katie Pickles. It created a definitive endpoint to a history shaped by omission, by myth-making, and by ideological storytelling. Pickles uncovers what was lost that February day, drawing out the different threads of Christchurch's colonial history and demonstrating why we should not attempt to knit them back together.
These poems draw upon the random treasures of the radio alphabet and the ancient contradictions of the Old Testament. At their centre, the mythical figure of Echo roams through an imaginary landscape. Hope, love, health and voice disappear and reappear, rescued by faith in poetry’s power to invent its own kind of sense.
>> Read a sample here.
At a run-down brothel in Caudal, Spain, the prostitutes are collecting stray dogs. Each is named after a famous male writer: Dante, Chaucer, Bret Easton Ellis. When a john is cruel, the dogs are fed rotten meat. To the east, in Barcelona, an unflappable teenage girl is endeavouring to trace the peculiarities of her life back to one woman: Alba Cambo, writer of violent short stories, who left Caudal as a girl and never went back.
"Wolff’s prose has a quality of 'otherness' entirely in keeping with the surreal atmosphere of the novel. This strange, provocative debut is a cool, clever and fierce addition to the canon of modern feminist literature." - Guardian
Essays: Nick Bollinger, Helena Wiśniewska Brow, Emma Gilkison, Elizabeth & Sara Knox, Catherine Robertson, John Summers, Giovanni Tiso, Chris Tse. Fiction: Pip Adam, Francis Cooke, Kate Duignan, Breton Dukes, Craig Gamble, Emma Hislop, Kirsten McDougall, Frances Mountier, Damien Wilkins. Poetry: Johanna Aitchison, Philip Armstrong, Jane Arthur, Tusiata Avia, Airini Beautrais, Jenny Bornholdt, Victoria Broome, James Brown, Rachel Bush, Geo Cochrane, Lynn Davidson, Lynley Edmeades, Trevor Hayes, Helen Heath, Alexandra Hollis, Erik Kennedy, Liang Yujing, Anna Livesey, Bill Manhire, Maria McMillan, Hannah Mettner, Bill Nelson, Gregory O’Brien, Claire Orchard, Nina Powles, Harry Ricketts, Frances Samuel, Kerrin P. Sharpe, C.K. Stead, Marty Smith, Oscar Upperton, Tim Upperton, Catherine Vidler, Louise Wallace, Sarah Natalie Webster, Sarah Wilson, Louise Wrightson, Ashleigh Young. Cover: Elyjana Roach.
Beatrice, a solitary young jazz singer from a genteel Parisian suburb, meets a mysterious woman named Polina. Polina visits her at night and whispers in her ear: 'There are people who leave their bodies and their bodies go on living without them. These people are named Natasha.' Cesar, a lonely Mexican actor working in a call centre, receives the opportunity of a lifetime: a role as a serial killer on a French TV series. But as he prepares for the audition, he starts falling in love with the psychopath he is to play. Beatrice and Cesar are drawn deeper into a city populated with visions and warnings, taunted by the chorusing of a group of young women, trapped in a windowless room, who all share the same name ...Natasha.
Is New Zealand's political settlement beginning to fray? And does this mean we're entering the interregnum, that ambiguous moment between society-wide discontent and political change?
Yukiko tragically lost her mother ten years ago. After visiting her sister in London, she goes on the run, and heads for Haworth, West Yorkshire, the last place her mother visited before her death. Against a cold, winter, Yorkshire landscape, Yuki has to tackle the mystery of her mother's death, her burgeoning friendship with a local girl, the allure of the Brontes and her own sister's wrath.
" That a whimsical comedy can transmute into an elegiac exercise in the futility of pursuing catharsis is no small achievement. That it is both funny and plangent is another. A strange, silly, sombre novel." - Independent
A magnificent volume of graphic art from three New Zealand and
three Taiwanese graphic artists. Art is a universal language, and this is magnificently demonstrated in this large-format book in which the six artists shared their memories, stories and creations through the magic of their pens. The artists created these 18 stories as gifts for each other, the whole woven with interlocking narratives, making the entire book flow like a dance or conversation.
75 new poems, demonstrating O'Sullivan's intellectual agility, wit and ability to encompass both human and poetic concerns in a cascade of felicitous lines.
An inlaid wooden chest the size of a shoe box holds Lynn Knight's button collection. This is a collection that has been passed down through three generations of women: a chunky sixties-era toggle from a favourite coat, three tiny pearl buttons from her mother's first dress after she was adopted as a baby, a jet button from a time of Victorian mourning. Each button tells a story. The Button Box traces the story of women at home and in work from pre-First World War domesticity, through the first clerical girls in silk blouses, to the delights of beading and glamour in the thirties to short skirts and sexual liberation in the sixties.
At the heart of Claire Orchard’s first poetry collection is Charles Darwin, during the intense period in which he was working on his controversial theory of evolution, On the Origin of Species. His world as traced in his notebooks and letters – his daily habits, his relationships, his health – is drawn out in full imaginative colour and echoed in unexpected ways in the poet’s own world 200 years later.
>> Interview here.
>> 'Settling for Action Man'.
Here is a story of 'self-discovery', of entering adulthood and of 'freeing oneself'. The tone is sarcastic, lucid, cruel yet realistic. A subtle account of relations between the sexes and of examining the choices one has made in the past.
>> Fargues is currently resident at Randall Cottage, Wellington, as is appearing at Writers Week at the New Zealand Festival this weekend.
Since British explorer James Cook first circumnavigated Antarctica in the late 18th century, the white continent has exerted a powerful attraction. There is no permanent human habitation, and no mercy from the raw, relentless elements, yet for nearly 200 years explorers and scientists have been drawn to work and sometimes risk their lives here. Rebecca Priestley's landmark anthology reveals the numerous scientific discoveries that have been made, from how sea creatures survive in the freezing waters, to the continent's extraordinary proliferation of meteorites and the startling revelations of its fossils. In the early days, nations vied to establish a presence on the continent to try and claim its resources. Today scientists track the arrival of space particles and examine ice cores, sea-floor sediments and rocks hewn by glaciers to better understand our universe, uncover the story of climate change, and learn how a land once covered in forests became a frozen desert.
Migration and the movement of people is one of the critical issues confronting the world's nations in the twenty-first-century. This book is about the economic contribution of migration to and from New Zealand, one of the most frequently discussed aspects of the debate. Can immigration, in economic terms, be more than a gap filler for the labour market and help as well with national economic transformation? And what is the evidence on the effect of migration not just on house prices but also on jobs, trade or broader economic performance?
London, May 1945. Freya Wyley, twenty, meets Nancy Holdaway, eighteen, amid the wild celebrations of VE-Day, the prelude to a devoted and competitive friendship that will endure on and off for the next two decades. Freya, wilful, ambitious, outspoken, pursues a career in newspapers which the chauvinism of Fleet Street and her own impatience conspire to thwart, while Nancy, gentler, less self-confident, struggles to get her first novel published. Both friends become entangled at university with Robert Cosway, a charismatic young man whose own ambition will have a momentous bearing on their lives.
Lethargic inactivity can be debilitating and depressing; but for those living in the modern world, the pendulum has swung far in the other direction. We live in a hectic, hyperactive, over-stimulated age. Excessive busyness and overfilled schedules is the norm, as are their effects on our mental and emotional lives. How might we address and counter such problems, for the sake of experiencing our lives more fully? How can we find meaning in being bored?
Lizzy lives with her father, Julian, and her brother, Ig, in North London. Two years ago her mother died, leaving a family bereft by her absence and a house still filled with her things: for Margaret was lively, beautiful, fun, loving; she kept the family together. So Lizzy thinks. Then, one day, Lizzy finds a letter from a stranger to her father, and discovers he has another child. Lizzy invites her into their world in an act of outraged defiance. Almost immediately, she realises her mistake. Look at Me is a exploration of family, grief, and the delicate balance between moving forward and not quite being able to leave someone behind.
Bixley's quirky and irreverent illustrations makes the Bard immediately accessible.
"A fearless tour de force. A rare achievement - an emotionally rich work of literature, delivered in the form of a gripping, page-turning story. The depiction of a British Indian childhood and adolescence is utterly compelling, as is the allegorical exploration of the human condition." - Colum McCann
The Swimmer. The Rebel. The Nerd. All Ryan, Harley and Miles had in common was Isaac. They lived different lives, had different interests and kept different secrets. But they shared the same best friend. They were sidekicks. And now that Isaac's gone, what does that make them?
Is China replacing Pacific nations' traditional partners? How has China changed regional security? What is the role of Chinese communities in the region? What opportunities - and what challenges - have come with China's increasing economic engagement?
At the age of thirty-six, on the verge of completing a decade's training as a neurosurgeon, Paul Kalanithi was diagnosed with inoperable lung cancer. One day he was a doctor treating the dying, the next he was a patient struggling to live. When Breath Becomes Air chronicles Kalanithi's transformation from a medical student asking what makes a virtuous and meaningful life into a neurosurgeon working in the core of human identity - the brain - and finally into a patient and a new father. What makes life worth living in the face of death? What do you do when life is catastrophically interrupted? What does it mean to have a child as your own life fades away?
"Finishing this book and then forgetting about it is simply not an option. Unmissable." - New York Times
In this fifth instalment of the 'My Struggle' cycle (which begins with A Death in the Family), Knausgaard discloses his personal and often deeply shameful battles with introversion, alcohol abuse, infidelity and artistic ambition.
The Iranian human rights lawyer and activist tells of her fight for reform inside Iran, and the devastating backlash she faced after winning the Nobel Peace Prize. Having fought tirelessly for democracy, equality before the law and freedom of speech, Ebadi became a global voice of inspiration. Yet, inside her own country, her life has been plagued by surveillance, intimidation and violence.
With her awful secondhand uniform and stuck-up classmates, Binny's new school is horrible. And life gets even worse when a storm damages the roof of her house, forcing Binny and her family to move to the countryside whilst it's being fixed. Binny, her sensible older sister Clem and her rambunctious brother James (and his chickens) begin adjusting to life in the country. Then one of James's beloved chickens vanishes and Binny finds strange footprints in the mud. What kind of creature is lurking in the undergrowth?
"McKay's books are so good you'll want to climb inside the covers and live there." - Telegraph
Set 300 years before the wonderful historical fantasy series set in feudal Japan, this book begins the tale of two rival clans struggling over who will be crowned Emperor of the Eight Islands, in a country inhabited by warriors, assassins, ghosts and guardian spirits.
The story unfolds as a visitor touches down, and the book unfolds as well - to a length of 3 meters! - full of quirky details.
Light makes an architectural space livable, shapes it and guides us within it. The role of light reaches well beyond practical needs and can create environments, emotions and spatial illusions. As our homes and buildings become increasingly interactive and connected to the 'Internet of things', the possibilities are growing exponentially.
An American student returns to Bulgaria, the country he left as a child, to track down his grandfather and to find out why he suddenly cut off all contact with the family three years before. The trail leads him to a remote village on the border with Turkey, a place of pagan mysteries and black storks nesting in giant oaks; a place where every spring, possessed by Christian saints, men and women dance barefoot across live coals in search of rebirth. Here he is drawn by his grandfather into a maze of half-truths.
Ramshackle and crumbling, trapped in the past and resisting the future, St Saviour's Infirmary awaits demolition. Within its stinking wards and cramped corridors the doctors bicker and fight. Ambition, jealousy and hatred seethe beneath the veneer of professional courtesy. Always an outsider, and with a secret of her own to hide, apothecary Jem Flockhart observes everything, but says nothing. And then six tiny coffins are uncovered, inside each a handful of dried flowers and a bundle of mouldering rags. When Jem comes across these strange relics hidden inside the infirmary's old chapel, her quest to understand their meaning prises open a long-forgotten past - with fatal consequences.
"Pastry baking is one half creativity, one half science, and one half old-fashioned know-how."
For over three decades, China exercised unprecedented control over the reproductive habits of its billion citizens. Now, with its economy faltering just as it seemed poised to become the largest in the world, the Chinese government has brought an end to its one-child policy. It may once have seemed a shortcut to riches, but it has had a profound effect on society in modern China.
What if a teenage boy washed up on the banks of the River Thames, soaked to the skin and unable to explain who he is? What if the only clue to the boy's identity is a sketch he made of a strange symbol? Who would help this boy? Who would hunt this boy? Who is River Boy?
Carolyn's not so different from the other people around her. She likes guacamole and cigarettes and steak. She knows how to use a phone. Clothes are a bit tricky, but everyone says nice things about her outfit with the Christmas sweater over the gold bicycle shorts. After all, she was a normal American herself once. That was a long time ago, of course. Before her parents died. Before she and the others were taken in by the man they called Father. In the years since then, Carolyn hasn't had a chance to get out much. Instead, she and her adopted siblings have been raised according to Father's ancient customs. They've studied the books in his Library and learned some of the secrets of his power. And sometimes, they've wondered if their cruel tutor might secretly be God. Now, Father is missing perhaps even dead and the Library that holds his secrets stands unguarded. And with it, control over all of creation.
"Wholly original. The work of the newest major talent in fantasy.” — Wall Street Journal
In 1965, a young research scientist named Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes, the subject of her study, a handsome amnesiac who cannot remember anything beyond the last seventy seconds. Over the course of thirty years, the two embark on mirroring journeys of self-discovery. Margot, enthralled by her charming, mysterious, and deeply lonely patient, as well as her officious supervisor, attempts to unlock Eli's shuttered memories of a childhood trauma without losing her own sense of identity in the process. And Eli, haunted by memories of an unknown girl's body underneath the surface of a lake, pushes to finally know himself once again, despite potentially devastating consequences.
>> Meet amnesiac Henry Moliason.
The author of Between the World and Me recalls life of struggle on the edge of chaos, and what is was like to be a young black man in desperate times. Ta Nehisi grew up in 1980s Baltimore when the city was on the verge of chaos: drugs, gangs and the constant threat of violence haunted the young black man's life wherever he went. A boy need to learn the knowledge fast and Coates's father, Paul, was a fine teacher: a Vietnam vet who rolled with the Black Panthers, an old-school disciplinarian, an autodidact who launched a publishing company in his basement dedicated to telling the true history of African civilization.
Barcelona, 1952: General Franco's fascist government is at the height of its oppressive powers, casting a black shadow across the city. When wealthy socialite Mariona Sobrerroca is found dead in her mansion in the exclusive Tibidabo district, the police scramble to seize control of the investigation. Ana Martí Noguer, an eager young journalist, is surprised to be assigned this important story, shadowing Inspector Isidro Castro.But Ana soon realises that a bundle of strange letters unearthed at the scene point to a sequence of events dramatically different from the official version. She enlists the help of her cousin Beatriz, a scholar, and what begins as an intriguing puzzle opens up a series of revelations that implicate the regime's most influential figures. The two women have placed themselves in mortal danger. As the conspiracy unfolds, Ana's courage and Beatriz's wits will be their only weapons against the city's corrupt and murderous elite.
Is this the last lost Seuss? A brother and sister visit a pet shop to pick a pet, but can't decide which one to go for. Sometimes making a choice can seem impossible to a child, and this book explores how it is hard to make up your mind, but sometimes you just have to do it!
For five days in January 1989, the parents of a seven-year-old Tokyo schoolgirl sat and listened to the demands of their daughter's kidnapper. They would never learn his identity. They would never see their daughter again. For the fourteen years that followed, the Japanese public listened to the police's apologies. They would never forget the botched investigation that became known as 'Six Four'. They would never forgive the authorities their failure. For one week in late 2002, the press officer attached to the police department in question confronted an anomaly in the case. He could never imagine what he would uncover.
"Not only is Six Four an addictive read, it is an education about Japan, its police and its society, and simply one of the best crime novels I have ever read." - David Peace
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