Fiction
Novels
Tu, Patricia Grace (Penguin, 2004)
Winner of the Deutz Medal for Fiction and winner of the Fiction Category in the 2005 Montana Book Awards.
In her latest novel, acclaimed Maori novelist Patricia Grace visits the often terrifying and complex world faced by men of the Maori Battalion in Italy during the Second World War.
Tu is proud of his name – the Maori god of war. But for the returned soldier there’s a shadow over his own war experience with the Maori Battalion in Italy. Three young men from the one family went to war, but only one returned – Tu is the sole survivor.
Now, when his young niece and nephew come to him to find out what happened, Tu is brought face to face with the past. What really happened to the three brothers as the Maori Battalion fought in the hills and valleys of Italy is contained in the pages of his war journal, which he decides to give to his niece and nephew.
Patricia Grace has drawn on the war experiences of her father and other relatives and ventured into new territory by writing about the world of war and soliders. The result is a novel of great authenticity and high drama from one of our finest storytellers.
Tarzan Presley, Nigel Cox (Victoria University Press, 2004)
Raised by gorillas in the wild jungles of New Zealand, scarred in battles with vicious giant wetas, seduced by a beautiful young scientist, discovered by Memphis record producer Sam Phillips and adored by millions – the dirt-to-dreams life story of Tarzan Presley is as legendary as his 30 number one hits. That story came to a dramatic end in 1977 when Tarzan took his own life.
Through its hypnotic fusing of two mythic lives, Tarzan and Elvis, this novel takes on some of the founding fables of our culture. In the guise of a joyous adventure story, it slyly poses questions about genius, fame, failure and love.
From its boldly funny opening page, the novel re-imagines the facts, and from then on the reader surrenders to one of the most extraordinary narrators in our literature: speculative, sexy, outlandish and tender. In a pulpy world, Tarzan Presley rewrites the lyrics of the familiar, giving us a wondrous new song.
‘Each new book from Nigel Cox is a surprise. But Tarzan Presley is a wild, slow-motion astonishment.’ - Bill Manhire
Ellie and the Shadow Man, Maurice Gee (Penguin, 2001)
This novel from the bestselling Maurice Gee is the story of Ellie. It is a story in five parts, each languishing on a significant period of her life.
It ranges from the 1950s when, as a girl, she lived in a YWCA hostel in Lower Hutt, to her twenties where she lives on a commune in Nelson, through to middle age, as she raises a son and becomes a painter. During this time she becomes involved with a series of rather feckless, forgettable men but also, most importantly of all, she becomes a painter of distinction. But her canvasses are haunted by an enigmatic ghostly figure she thinks of as her shadow man, elusive but ever present.
Gee's new novel contains elements of his earlier book Loving Ways and also The Burning Boy, in its location in Nelson and Golden Bay. There are strong touches of the New Zealand backdrop - the 1981 Tour, the Nelson artists' scene, whitebaiting on the West Coast, the wildfoods festival, and so on.
Above all else, as with every Gee novel, it is eminently readable and beautifully written.
Mansfield: a novel, CK Stead (Vintage, 2004)
Shortlisted for the Deutz Medal for Fiction, 2005 Montana NZ Book Awards.
Spanning three years in the life of the writer Katherine Mansfield during the First World War, this novel follows the ups and downs of her relationship with Jack Middleton Murry and her struggle to write the 'new kind of fiction' which she felt the times demanded.
While sticking scrupulously to what is known about Mansfield's life and those of her friends (a cast that includes D.H. and Frieda Lawrence, Bertrand Russell, Dora Carrington, Lytton Strachey, Aldous Huxley, T. S. Eliot, Lady Ottoline Morrel and Virginia Woolf), this novel is extraordinary in taking the reader beyond the point of biography into the mind, emotions and sensibility of its subject.
It is a sharp, subtle and appealing portrait of the person of whose work Virginia Woolf wrote: 'It was the only writing I was ever jealous of'.
Owls do Cry, Janet Frame (first published 1957)
New Zealand’s most distinguished writer, Janet Frame, described the ideas behind her first novel in the second volume of her autobiography: ‘Pictures of great treasures in the midst of sadness and waste haunted me and I began to think, in fiction, of a childhood, home life, hospital life, using people known to me as a base for the main characters, and inventing minor characters … For Daphne I chose a sensitive, poetic, frail person, who (I hoped) would give depth to inner worlds and perhaps a clearer, at least an individual, perception of outer worlds. The other characters, similarly fictional, were used to portray aspects of my 'message' – the excessively material outlook of 'Chicks', the confusion of Toby, the earthy make-up of Francie, and the toiling parents, the nearest characters to my own parents.’
The Vintner’s Luck, Elizabeth Knox (first published Victoria University Press, 1998)
Set in Burgundy in the nineteenth century, The Vintner's Luck tells the magical, spellbinding story of Sobran Jodeau, a vintner from the village of Aluze. On a midsummer's night, Sobran's life is forever changed when he is visited by an angel named Xas, a gorgeous creature with wings that smell of snow.
The Vintner’s Luck won the Medal for Fiction at the 1999 Montana New Zealand Book Awards, where it also received the Readers’ Choice and Booksellers’ Choice awards. It was shortlisted for the 1999 Orange Prize and in 2001 was awarded the inaugural Tasmania Pacific Region Prize.
The Bone People, Keri Hulme (first published Spiral Collective, 1984)
The Bone People won the 1984 New Zealand Book Award for Fiction and the Booker Prize in 1985.
'Set on the harsh South Island beaches of New Zealand, bound in Maori myth and entwined with Christian symbols, Miss Hulme's provocative novel summons power with words, as a conjuror's spell. She casts her magic on three fiercely unique characters, but reminds us that we, like them, are ‘nothing more than people’, and that, in a sense, we are all cannibals, compelled to consume the gift of love with demands for perfection' New York Times Book Review
Short Stories
Watch of Gryphons, Owen Marshall (Vintage, 2005)
The empty tussock dryness of New Zealand’s South Island, the ancient stone buildings of Italy’s Perugia, unsolved murder, the capricious indignity of Alzheimer’s disease, adoption – there is a rich variety of setting and subject in this superb new collection by short fiction master Owen Marshall. Several longer stories give Watch The Gryphons a special depth and resonance, but present, as always, is the startling range and subtlety of emotion readers have come to expect from this most gifted of writers.
The Flamingo Anthology of New Zealand Short Stories, edited by Michael Morrissey (Flamingo, 2004)
First published in 2000, this is an updated collection of New Zealand short stories. It is an exciting and different anthology, which will be an invaluable resource for the student of New Zealand literature at both secondary and tertiary level.
In some instances it offers two or three different stories from the same author, giving the reader a substantial sample of their work. The anthology will also interest the general reader who wants to be made aware of recent trends in New Zealand writing. Editor Michael Morrissey is a poet and fiction writer.
Memoir
Ghost Dance, Douglas Wright (Penguin, 2004)
Winner of the E. H. McCormick Best First Book Award for Non Fiction at the 2005 Montana Book Awards.
Part love story, part memoir, Ghost Dance is a deeply felt meditation on the art of performance, on absence and on life itself. As in the best of Douglas Wright's dance-theatre work, light and dark are interwoven in deft, mysterious combinations.
Ghost Dance swoops from the Everest-highs of the stages of New York and London, down through the back rooms of Manhattan's gay baths of the 1980s. It sits in meditation on silent retreats before labouring at the unyielding coal-face of the performing arts in New Zealand. Malcolm Ross, Janet Frame, Tobias Schneebaum, Billie Farnell, Paul Taylor, Lloyd Newson and a stone from Emily Dickinson's garden are the supporting cast of his odyssey recounted from within the flickering shadows of chronic illness.
Chronicle of the Unsung, Martin Edmond (Auckland University Press, 2004)
Winner of Biography category 2005 Montana Book Awards
Edmond mingles biography and autobiography in an unusual work, beautifully written and often powerful and moving. Four quite separate periods or episodes in author Martin Edmond's life are linked by a number of themes and are often the excuse for discussions of historical figures, typically on society's margins, or reflections on the nature of art and its relation to personal life.
The sections are set in Europe, Australia, Fiji and New Zealand and one of the fascinations of the work is the skilful way in which Martin conveys the power, often sinister and disturbing, of the places in which he has lived and the impact the locations seem to have on his own personal life. The book thus becomes at one level an account of Martin's own development, of his process of self-discovery, and is another variant on the theme that has always interested him, the nature of the creative personality. The last section concerns a trip to a school reunion at Ohakune and deals with Martin's relations with his well-known family and especially his mother.
Plays
Plays I: Small Towns and Sea: Horseplay, Flipside, Trick of the Light, Ken Duncum (Victoria University Press, 2005)
Most of our myths are ‘true stories’. They fascinate us because they are us. Award-winning playwright Ken Duncum tackles three of the biggies.
'Horseplay' is about a hypothetical meeting between the novelist Ronald Hugh Morrieson and the poet James K. Baxter in Hawera in 1972. Death approaches as the novelist and the poet share the stage with the rear end of a horse. In 'Flipside' four men confront the elements, each other and themselves, during 119 days adrift in the overturned Rose-Noëlle. In 'Trick of the Light' two generations, and the long shadow of the Crewe murders. A brother and sister bring their mother’s ashes to a motel room that hasn’t been opened for three decades.
Indian Ink: Krishnan’s Dairy, The Candlestick Maker, The Pickle King, Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis (Victoria University Press, 2005)
This trilogy of plays is the most significant body of work in recent New Zealand theatre. Authors Jacob Rajan and Justin Lewis formed Indian Ink Theatre Company in 1996.
‘Such is the power of Jacob Rajan’s ground-breaking work: it changes the way you see the world . . . such riveting theatre that you would have to have a heart of reinforced concrete not to be captivated.’ NZ Listener
'Krishnan’s Dairy': Gobi and Zina Krishnan have come to New Zealand in search of a better life. They work hard and keep their dreams stacked on the shelves of their struggling business. Two New Zealand clichés about Indians - the Taj Mahal and the corner dairy are fused into an enchanting love story.
'The Candlestickmaker': A young New Zealand Indian student, Lonely Planet in hand, sets off to discover India and ends up discovering the mysteries of the universe. A play about black holes and the formula for happiness.
'The Pickle King': The Empire Hotel is as faded as the dreams of the piano player who haunts the lobby. Jojo, a heart surgeon and recent arrival from India, is a night porter at the hotel. Ammachy runs the Empire with an iron fist and has one big problem: her niece will not be married. Sasha knows she must not marry because she is cursed; everything she loves dies.
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