“Shocking the model” John McCrystal
Five Minutes Alone Paul Cleave Penguin, $38.00, ISBN 9780143572312 The Legend of Winstone Blackhat Tanya Moir Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781775537755 MiSTORY Philip Temple Font Publishing, $35.00, ISBN...
View ArticleReading, writing and arithmetic, Barbara Else
Speed of Light Joy Cowley Gecko Press, $20.00, ISBN 9781877579936 Teddy One-Eye: The Autobiography of a Teddy Bear Gavin Bishop Random House, $35.00, ISBN 9781775537274 The ACB with Honora Lee Kate De...
View ArticleHipster pulp, Dougal McNeill
New Hokkaido James McNaughton Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 978 086473 9766 James McNaughton’s New Hokkaido is not the “adventure that thrills and disquiets at every turn” promised in its...
View ArticleTea and comfort, Sarah Laing
The Hiding Places Catherine Robertson Black Swan, $37.00, ISBN 9781775536420 Where is the line between popular and literary fiction? If the latter is rich with poetic language and literary references,...
View ArticleThe place where stories begin, Paula Morris
Chappy Patricia Grace Penguin, $38.00, ISBN 9780143572398 It’s over a decade since Patricia Grace’s last novel, the moving, cinematic Tu – an ambitious book about war and its temptations, adventures...
View ArticleShort and not very sweet, Ashlee Nelson
ShameJoy Julie Hill Giant Sparrow, $25.00, ISBN 9780473284060 Mean Michael Botur Create Space, US$6.66, ISBN 9781491226650 Julie Hill’s ShameJoy is very much a mixed bag in terms of quality, with some...
View ArticleHistory lessons, James Norcliffe
Monkey Boy Donovan Bixley Scholastic, $16.50, ISBN 9781775431862 Trouble in Time Adele Broadbent Scholastic, $19.00, ISBN 9781775432265 Monkey Boy opens with a prologue designed, no doubt, to...
View ArticleThe magic between the panels, Adrian Kinnaird
Sam Zabel and the Magic Pen Dylan Horrocks Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780864739759 The Bitter Sweet Philosophies K K Jart (text) and Nick Fedaeff (paintings) Eunoia Publishing, $40.00,...
View ArticleRaymond Chandler meets Alfred Bester, Michael Morrissey
Hold My Teeth While I Teach You to Dance Mike Johnson 99% Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780994101518 Mike Johnson is one of our most gifted novelists, yet he has been curiously neglected. I suspect the problem...
View ArticleReading as mudlarking
The Chimes Anna Smaill Sceptre ISBN 9781444794533 The Chimes, debut novel of poet and violinist Anna Smaill, portrays a post-apocalyptic but disorientingly medieval dystopia dominated by music. The...
View ArticleHurtling along, armed with a map, Eirlys Hunter
Soup and Bread Nōnen Títi Nōnen Títi, $25.00, ISBN 9780994107732 The Pirates and the Nightmaker James Norcliffe Longacre, $20.00, ISBN 9781775537694 The Volume of Possible Endings: A Tale of Fontania...
View ArticleIneludible envanishings Jane Stafford
Blanche Baughan: Selected Writings Damian Love (ed) Erewhon Press, $30,00 ISBN 9780473309435 It is hard work establishing and maintaining a local canon when authors vanish and books slide in and out of...
View ArticleThe gap between fiction and history, Hamish Clayton
R.H.I.: Two Novellas Tim Corballis Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864739827 Trifecta Ian Wedde Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9780864739834 In 1987, the South African novelist J M...
View ArticleLife invisible, Louise Wareham Leonard
The Pale North Hamish Clayton Penguin, $30.00 ISBN 9780143569268 The Pale North, written by 1977 Hawke’s Bay-born Hamish Clayton, is an experiment, a metafiction, a deconstruction, a love letter and an...
View ArticleMaybe, maybe not, Craig Cliff
The Writers’ Festival Stephanie Johnson Vintage, $38.00 ISBN 9781775537984 Taken together, Stephanie Johnson’s The Writing Class (2013) and her latest novel, The Writers’ Festival, are a study in...
View ArticleSo wide, can’t get around it, John Newton
James K Baxter: Complete Prose John Weir (ed) Victoria University Press, $200.00, ISBN 9781776560370 James K Baxter’s Collected Poems which appeared in 1979 remains the most monumental object in New...
View ArticleCrime wave, Bernard Carpinter
Running Towards Danger Tina Clough Vanguard Press, $30.00, ISBN 97811784650100 Blood, Wine and Chocolate Julie Thomas HarperCollins, $35.00 ISBN 9781775540533 Something Is Rotten Adam Sarafis Echo,...
View ArticleLives shaped by the novelist, Elspeth Sandys
Death and Forgiveness Jindra Tichá Mary Egan Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9780473306717 Rich Man Road Ann Glamuzina Eunoia Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9780994104748 In a recent review in New Zealand Books,...
View ArticleHaunted by the 1970s, Tina Shaw
The Predictions Bianca Zander Blackfriars, $30.00, ISBN 9780349134369 The Party Line Sue Orr Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781775537557 These two novels consider two very different communities back in the...
View ArticleEchoes of the real, Sarah Ross
Starlight Peninsula Charlotte Grimshaw Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9781775538226 “A collar in the studio!” enthuses John Campbell to his co-host, as he takes over his new afternoon slot on National Radio:...
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