Snapshots on the Journey: through death & remembrance: an anthology of poems ed Rod MacLeod Steele Roberts, $29.95, ISBN 1877228672 Anthologies of poetry serve different purposes; the intent can be as important as the content. Michael Roberts’ Faber Book of…
Royce, Royce, the People’s Choice Peter Hawes Random House, $26.95, ISBN 1869414985 Peter Hawes’s new novel is a big, jocular and elaborate fishing yarn. The tale-telling is strenuously masculine, prodding, very physical. As you read, you feel as though you’re…
Johanna’s World O M Andresen (trans Johan Bonnevie) HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869503708 Mrs Rochester Warwick Blanchett HarperCollins, $24.95, ISBN 1869503651 Consequences Carol Thomas HarperCollins, $19.95, ISBN 1869503732 The uses of history are manifold and many-faceted. The literary uses of history…
Paradise Tina Shaw Penguin, $27.95, ISBN 0143018272 Notions of paradise – nirvana, Shangri-la – are universal to human societies, because they are, of course, simply expressions of that most basic of human faculties, hope. Just as we live our lives…
Fourteen Reasons for Writing Kevin Ireland Hazard Press, $21.95, ISBN 18877270080 It may not possess the weight of historical significance of The Kennedy Question, but I asked myself, “where were you when Kevin Ireland’s first book of poetry (Face to…
Only One Angel Jan Kemp University of Otago Press, $24.95, ISBN 1877276170 Snowing Down South Janet Charman Auckland University Press, $21.95, ISBN 1869402685 After publishing a poem in a church magazine, and receiving messages from people all over the country…
Collected Poems 1967-1999 Bill Manhire Victoria University Press, ISBN 086473411 (paperback), $34.95 ISBN 0864734212 (hardback) $49.95 In this Collected Poems, the private universe of Bill Manhire is made readily available to his ever-increasing audience. But it may take years and many readings…
Below Tim Corballis Victoria University Press, $24.95, ISBN 0864734131 Let me say at the outset that this is a remarkable novel; subtle, complex, delicately wrought. It is the kind of work that leaves you thinking not just about the material…