Undeveloping Nation: New Zealand’s Twenty Year Fall Towards the Third World David McLoughlin, Penguin, $24.95 The Decent Society: Essays In Response to National’s Economic and Social Policies Jonathan Boston and Paul Dalziel (eds) Oxford University Press, $29.95 Controlling Interests: Business,…
The Shark that Ate the Sun (Ko a Mago ne Kal a fa) John Puhiatau Pule, Penguin Books, $24.95 Can you adequately review a 294-page book – which is rich, allusive, poetic, partly epistolary, partly story‑chants from last century, partly…
Valley of the Dinosaurs: The Story of New Zealand’s Dinosaur Woman Joan Wiffen, Random Century, $19.95 (128 pp) When Joan Wiffen’s husband Pont became too ill to attend his geology night classes, this Hawke’s Bay housewife went in his place…
The New Zealanders: A Story of Austral Lands J S C Dumont-d’Urville, transl Carol Legge, Victoria University Press, $39.95 From the excellent translations of Olive Wright, even readers who prefer to avoid the pitfalls of French grammar already know that Dumont-d’Urville…
A People’s History: Illustrated Biographies from the Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, Volume One, 1769-1869, W H Oliver (ed), Bridget Williams Books/ Department of Internal Affairs, $39.95 Taken alone, this collection of biographical essays can be summed up quickly. Wellwritten,…
Tell us about the book you want to give everyone for Christmas and/or the book you hope no one gives you for Christmas, we asked twenty-four of our top writers and critics. Fifteen of them dared to respond. Jenny…
In the Same Room: Conversations with New Zealand Writers Elizabeth Alley and Mark Williams (eds), Auckland University Press, $29.95 Writers on Writing: An Anthology Robert Neale (ed), Oxford University Press, $39.95 In In the Same Room, Vincent O’Sullivan approvingly quotes fellow anthologist…
By the Moon and the Stars Eva Hayman, Random Century, $24.95 Krystyna’s Story Halina Ogonowska-Coates, Bridget Williams Books, $29.95 When there is nothing left, what stops people huddling in a corner, not doing the things necessary for survival? Where does…