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Issue 115 | Spring 2016

Volume 26 | Number 3 | Issue 115 | Spring 2016   Editorial Chris Orsman: “Memory Harbour” (poem) Charlotte Graham: Tracey Slaughter, Deleted Scenes for Lovers Thom Conroy: Laurence Fearnley, The Quiet Spectacular Tatjana Schaefer: N K Ashworth, The Falconer’s

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Poem – Chris Orsman

Memory 
Harbour (i.m. Pvt. Robert Brownlee: obit. 14/vi/1916) Whatever challenge is carelessly thrown down there are those who will always soldier on when strangers loom and cast their shadow. It’s dead low-water on Memory Harbour: a crab patrol sidles across

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Editorial – Issue 115

Taking it personally Recent conversations about the state of reviewing in New Zealand have been dominated by demands, sometimes pleas, that reviewers be brave and honest. Of course. We, too, at New Zealand Books Pukapuka Aotearoa look for bravery and

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Familiar 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 play out in front of a judge seem at first

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Promising 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 landscapes and her stylistic tendency toward restraint inspire praise, with reviews admiring Fearnley for how markedly

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Poem – Bill Nelson

Let me tell you about one more statue   This one is a jazz man lying on his side. One knee raised, chipping away at a gimlet. The ruffles of his shirt spill down below his chest over the pedestal

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Drawing pictures in the mind, Barbara Else

Coming Home to Roost Mary-Anne Scott Longacre Press, $20.00, ISBN 9781775538592  The Road to Ratenburg Joy Cowley Gecko Press, $20.00, ISBN 9781776570751 Twice now I’ve been a marker at a regional Lit Quiz where teams of top intermediate age readers

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Glory or gory? Caitlin Walker

The Bakehouse Joy Cowley Gecko Press, $20.00, ISBN 9781776570072 Viewed from a distance of seventy-plus years, 1943 was history soup, everything mixed up, and it was difficult to separate reality from what he had read or been told. One event,

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The challenge of being, Tatjana Schaefer

The Falconer’s Daughter N K Ashworth RSVP, $25.00 ISBN 9780987658760 Being Magdalene Fleur Beale Random House, $20.00 ISBN 9781775537670 It almost goes without saying that novels for the young adult or teen reader are about the quest for personal identity.

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Forward to the 1950s, Trevor Agnew

The Adventures of Hutu and Kawa Avis Acres (text and illus) Puffin, $25.00, ISBN 9780143507055 First to the Top: Sir Edmund Hillary’s Everest Adventure David Hill (Phoebe Morris illus) Puffin, $25.00, ISBN 9780143506874 Changing Times: The Story of a New

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