“The push and pull of parenting”, Catriona Ferguson
Billy Bird Emma Neale Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9780143770053 Emma Neale’s sixth novel, Billy Bird, probes the life of a troubled family – Liam, Iris and eight-year-old Billy. They are all reeling from a...
View ArticleFrom a trio of veterans, Anna Mackenzie
The Severed Land Maurice Gee Penguin, $20.00, ISBN 9780143770244 Shooting Stars Brian Falkner Scholastic, $21.00, ISBN 9781775433606 Cool Nukes Des Hunt Scholastic, $20.00, ISBN 9781775433422 As a...
View ArticleQuality assured, Guy Somerset
Annual Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris (eds) Gecko Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781776570775 Would it kill Wellington children’s publisher Gecko Press to once – just once! – say “Sod it, really, who can be...
View ArticlePromising softly-spoken wonder, Thom Conroy
The Quiet Spectacular Laurence Fearnley Penguin, $38.00, ISBN 9780143574156 Laurence Fearnley occupies a position somewhere between national treasure and experimental writer. Her depictions of...
View ArticleFamiliar and strange, Charlotte Graham
Deleted Scenes for Lovers Tracey Slaughter Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9781776560585 In almost a decade in journalism, I’ve spent a long time sitting in courtrooms. The people whose lives...
View ArticleMusic boxes and willows, Edmund Bohan
The Song Journey T E Scott Scott Publishing, $37.00, ISBN 9780473328863 Napoleon’s Willow Joan Norlev Taylor RSVP Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9780987658784 One of the attractions of historical fiction is...
View ArticleMysteries past and present, John McCrystal
Days are like Grass Sue Younger Eunoia Publishing, $30.00, ISBN 9780994104762 Mysterious Mysteries of the Aro Valley Danyl McLauchlan Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9781776560479 Claire is a...
View ArticleBleak stuff under total control, Stephanie Johnson
The Wish Child Catherine Chidgey Victoria University Press, $30.00, IBSN 9781776560622 When Dutch writer Herman Koch visited New Zealand as part of the 2016 Auckland Writers’ Festival, he expressed his...
View Article“The push and pull of parenting”, Catriona Ferguson
Billy Bird Emma Neale Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9780143770053 Emma Neale’s sixth novel, Billy Bird, probes the life of a troubled family – Liam, Iris and eight-year-old Billy. They are all reeling from a...
View ArticleFrom a trio of veterans, Anna Mackenzie
The Severed Land Maurice Gee Penguin, $20.00, ISBN 9780143770244 Shooting Stars Brian Falkner Scholastic, $21.00, ISBN 9781775433606 Cool Nukes Des Hunt Scholastic, $20.00, ISBN 9781775433422 As a...
View ArticleQuality assured, Guy Somerset
Annual Kate De Goldi and Susan Paris (eds) Gecko Press, $40.00, ISBN 9781776570775 Would it kill Wellington children’s publisher Gecko Press to once – just once! – say “Sod it, really, who can be...
View ArticleWhose pain? Sarah Ross
Strip Sue Wootton Mākaro, $40.00, ISBN 9780994123756 To spend the duration of Sue Wootton’s Strip in the presence of her protagonist, Dr Harvey Wright, is not an entirely comfortable experience. Harvey...
View ArticleFilling historical gaps, Claire Mabey
Daylight Second Kelly Ana Morey HarperCollins, $37.00, ISBN 9781775540526 I am certain that I’ve seen Phar Lap. Somewhere, in the back of my memory, is a child’s-eye view of a very large horse in a...
View ArticleThe mess we’re in, Anne Kennedy
Lifting Damien Wilkins Victoria University Press, $30.00, ISBN 9781776561025 In the opening scene of Lifting, Amy, a department store detective, is pursuing a “Person of Interest” (POI) – a...
View ArticlePeople and places, Louise O’Brien
A Surfeit of Sunsets Dulcie Castree Mākaro Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780994123787 The Earth Cries Out Bonnie Etherington Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9780143770657 In the late Dulcie Castree’s novel, Shirley...
View ArticleCourting controversy, Emma Martin
Fiction The Suicide Club Sarah Quigley Vintage, $38.00, ISBN 9780143771012 Midway through Sarah Quigley’s The Suicide Club, Lace, one of its three troubled young protagonists, recalls a story told to...
View ArticleKelp triffids, zombie chickens and taniwha, Annabel Gooder
Speculative fiction At the Edge Dan Rabarts and Lee Murray (eds) Paper Road Press, $31.50, ISBN 9780473354152 At the Edge is an original anthology of speculative fiction (science fiction, fantasy and...
View ArticleWho is Sam? Phillip Mann
Star Sailors James McNaughton Victoria University Press, $35.00, ISBN 9781776561018 This book is not science fiction; it is science fact. Global warming, unless controlled, will create an uninhabitable...
View ArticleCliquety-clique? David Hill
Twice Upon a Time James Norcliffe Puffin NZ, $17.00, ISBN 9780143770671 Into the White Joanna Grochowicz Allen and Unwin, $19.00, ISBN 9781760293659 Taupo Blows! Doug Wilson Bateman, $19.00, ISBN...
View ArticleThe grimness of contemporary realism, John McCrystal
Five Strings Apirana Taylor Anahera Press, $35.00, ISBN 9780473389482 Iceland Dominic Hoey Steele Roberts, $35.00, ISBN 978094749343I It’s that time of the three-yearly cycle again. A billboard has...
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