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The Luminaries, Eleanor Catton

An extract from Eleanor Catton’s new novel. Mercury in Sagittarius (January 27, 1866) The 12 men congregated in the smoking-room of the Crown Hotel gave the impression of a party accidentally met. For all their variety of comportment and dress

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Posted in Extract, Fiction, Literature

Letters – Issue 96

Not a bar of it The cover of the Spring 2011 issue of NZB announces that “Elspeth Sandys keeps time with Quigley’s The Conductor”, but her disappointingly thin review falls short of doing justice to this complex and satisfying novel. 

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Posted in Letters

Poem – Bill Manhire

A return after Milosz Stuff I believed in, gone; rules and other things – the stuff of song. I woke up feeling funny with no clothes on. Professors paraded in Greek, dreaming of oak and pine; the Leith wandered its

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Poem – Paula Green

1984 Copernicus has no idea what to cook for dinner or whether to change into something cooler. He can’t stop thinking about books that have changed his life. You were twenty-nine and saw no signs of mind control 24 hour

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Bookmaking, Chris Brickell

Chris Brickell explores the possibilities of “democratic publishing”. In a pair of old buckram photograph albums from the 1880s, men pose proudly, touch gently, frolic indoors and out, and dress up in male and female costume. Their lives depart from

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Posted in Comment, ebooks

Reframing, Timothy G Jones

The Frame Function: An Inside-out Guide to the Novels of Janet Frame Jan Cronin Auckland University Press, $49.99, ISBN 9781869404864   The Frame Function, Jan Cronin’s new monograph treating the novels of Janet Frame, is not the book it appears

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Posted in Fiction, Literature, Non-fiction, Review

Hums, James Brown

James Brown looks back at A A Milne’s classic books for children. The World of Pooh is my all-time favourite formative book. This is a collection containing A A Milne’s two Pooh books – Winnie-the-Pooh and The House at Pooh

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Posted in Children, Imprints, Literature

Not on the Cromwell Road, Margot Schwass

Margot Schwass travels A Long Way from Verona with Jane Gardam. It was the school holidays; I was 12 or so, much given to moping about and staring fruitlessly out of windows when I had nothing to read. This of

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Posted in Imprints, Literature, Young adults

Raw edges of wonder, Janet Hughes

The Hill of Wool Jenny Bornholdt Victoria University Press, $25.00, ISBN 9780864736529   Thicket Anna Jackson Auckland University Press, $24.99, ISBN 9871869404826   Aloe Diana Bridge Auckland University Press, $24.99, ISBN 98718669404413   The Leaf Ride Dinah Hawken Victoria University

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Posted in Literature, Poetry, Review

“Awesome”. Or not — Paula Morris

Paula Morris works hard at presenting reviewers with the other cheek.  It’s 10 years since I wrote my first novel, Queen of Beauty, which makes it nine years since the book was published, and I started getting reviews. Only nine

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