Next to Gods: A Cleaner’s Story Don Franks Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251487 On Getting Old Kevin Ireland Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251479 On Going to the Movies Peter Wells Four Winds Press, $14.95, ISBN 0958251460 I have…
Margaret Mahy: A Writer’s Life Tessa Duder HarperCollins, $39.95, ISBN 1869504852 Margaret Mahy’s 1995 novel The Other Side of Silence presents itself as the autobiography of its female hero (whose name, too, is “Hero”). At the end, however, the first…
A Radical Writer’s Life Dick Scott Reed, $39.99, ISBN 0790009765 The society in which I grew up largely no longer exists, immolated in the “reforms” of the 80s and 90s. It would be wrong to consider that an entirely bad…
This Piece of Earth: A Life in My New Zealand Garden Harvey McQueen Awa Press, $34.95, ISBN 0958253838 Reading Harvey McQueen’s account of a year’s engagement with his garden has confirmed what I’ve thought for a long time: you have…
Dreamhunter Elizabeth Knox HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 0732281938 The Time of the Giants Anne Kennedy Auckland University Press, $27.99, ISBN 1869403428 Maddigan’s Fantasia Margaret Mahy HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869505611 Maddigan’s Fantasia opens with Garland Maddigan’s note to herself, “Written down things…
Hypnic Jerks Geoff Cochrane Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 08647350006 Milk & Honey Michele Leggott Auckland University Press, $28.00, ISBN 1869403347 Cassandra’s Daughter Michael Harlow Auckland University Press, $25.00, ISBN 1869403320 Writing poetry – seriously writing poetry and expecting someone…
Land of Milk and Honey William Taylor HarperCollins, $16.99, ISBN 1869505492 Out on the Edge Anna Mackenzie Longacre Press, $18.95, ISBN 1877361038 Something Wicked This Way Comes Ken Catran Scholastic, $16.99, ISBN 186943546X A Canoe in the Mist Elsie Locke…
The Captive Wife Fiona Kidman Vintage, $27.95, ISBN 1869416864 The title of The Captive Wife and the setting, New Zealand and Australia of the 1930s, lead us to expect a colonial captivity narrative, and it is present in Betty…