Some Other Country


Book Description




The Oxford Book of New Zealand Short Stories


Book Description

This anthology presents 50 stories by over 40 of New Zealand's best writers. Nineteenth-century writing, which is largely unknown, is represented by Clara Cheeseman and G B Lancaster, as well as by the more familiar Lady Barker and itinerant Henry Lawson. In the early twentieth century Katherine Mansfield is followed by Greville Texidor as well as Frank Sargeson and Dan Davin. The middle years of the century exhibit a flowering of talent. Janet Frame, Maurice Duggan, and Maurice Geeare all fine practitioners of the genre, while Witi Ihimaera and Patricia Grace are the strong voices of Maori writing. The past dozen or so years have seen an explosion of new writing, with talents as diverse as Owen Marshall, Keri Hulme, Barbara Anderson, and Peter Wells. The selection provides an introduction to New Zealand short fiction that readers interestd in the new literatures in English will find stimulating and surprising. The stories are accompanied by brief biographical notes and a glossary of Maori words.




The Author's Cut


Book Description

Chosen by the author from his thirteen previous collections, this latest selection of stories includes 'Coming Home in the Dark', the inspiration for a new feature film. Owen Marshall is regarded as one of our finest living writers. His stories capture the imagination and refuse to let go. From dark to funny, acerbic to warm, they probe our national psyche with clear-eyed insight. This selection from a long career ranges across New Zealand and ventures overseas; the pieces explore both cruelty and love; they look back to childhood and also capture the world we live in today. Full of unexpected turns, lyrical writing, wry observations and intriguing plots, this sampling offers a provocative take on New Zealand. `I very much envy his ability to lay things down in such a way that each one has its natural weight and place, without any straining and heaving.' - Maurice Gee, Sport 'Owen Marshall has established himself as one of the masters of the short story' - Livres Hebdo, Paris




Essential New Zealand Short Stories


Book Description

Essential NZ Stories is a companion volume to Essential NZ Poems, edited by Edmond and Sewell, and contains 45 arresting and significant stories spanning 80 years, ranging from Katherine Mansfield and Frank Sargeson to Emily Perkins and Chad Taylor. The collection shows why short fiction has been so important in the development of our literature, and why it continues to appeal to a wide readership.The stories are not chosen as social documents, and the relationship between life in a given time and place, and the art which arises from it, is too subtle to be satisfactorily captured by the analogy of a mirror. Nevertheless, writers are always influenced by their social and physical environments, and the stories provide tangential, personalised glimpses of the journey we make as a nation.




The Best of Albert Wendt's Short Stories


Book Description

A collection of classic short stories from the award-winning author, Albert Wendt, acknowledged as one of the Pacific's major writers. Albert Wendt's short stories, providing a complex and profound understanding of people and the world, have been read and praised in New Zealand, the Pacific and internationally. This collection brings together his classic stories published in the Flying-Fox in a Freedom Tree and the Birth and Death of the Miracle Man and Other Stories together with exciting, previously uncollected work. '. . . his stories have the tone of timeles, and very savvy, fables.' - New York Times 'A writer of international importance.' - Landfall




Tahuri


Book Description

"There is always a special feeling I get when I read a book written by a Maori about being Maori, where the world is described through eyes that are my eyes - the people, the humour, the sadness and the occasions are familiar parts of my life - and Tahuri is such a book." -Books for Secondary School Libraries




Electric City


Book Description

These are short stories about ordinary folk leading seemingly ordinary lives. The power of community, extended family and culture are central to all. Thirteen stories in which the joys of discovery are tempered by the knowledge of a harder, colder world. Sunlight, childhood and nature set against conflict and misunderstanding, in the ever-present shadows of the spirit of the land.




Black Marks on the White Page


Book Description

A stunning collection of Oceanic stories for the 21st century. Stones move, whale bones rise out of the ground like cities, a man figures out how to raise seven daughters alone. Sometimes gods speak or we find ourselves in a not-too-distant future. Here are the glorious, painful, sharp and funny 21st century stories of Maori and Pasifika writers from all over the world. Vibrant, provocative and aesthetically exciting, these stories expand our sense of what is possible in Indigenous Oceanic writing. Witi Ihimaera and Tina Makereti present the very best new and uncollected stories and novel excerpts, creating a talanoa, a conversation, where the stories do the talking. And because our commonalities are more stimulating than our differences, the anthology also includes guest work from an Aboriginal Australian writer, and several visual artists whose work speaks to similar kaupapa. Join us as we deconstruct old theoretical maps and allow these fresh Black Marks on the White Page to expand our perception of the Pacific world.




The Penguin History of New Zealand


Book Description

New Zealand was the last country in the world to be discovered and settled by humankind. It was also the first to introduce full democracy. Between those events, and in the century that followed the franchise, the movements and the conflicts of human history have been played out more intensively and more rapidly in New Zealand than anywhere else on Earth. The Penguin History of New Zealand, a new book for a new century, tells that story in all its colour and drama. The narrative that emerges in an inclusive one about men and women, Maori and Pakeha. It shows that British motives in colonising New Zealand were essentially humane; and that Maori, far from being passive victims of a 'fatal impact', coped heroically with colonisation and survived by selectively accepting and adapting what Western technology and culture had to offer. This book, a triumphant fruit of careful research, wide reading and judicious assessment, was an unprecedented best-seller from the time of its first publication in 2003.




The Dark Island


Book Description

From 1906 to 1925 Quail Island, in Lyttelton Harbour, was the site of New Zealand’s leprosy colony. The colony began by accident, as it were, after the discovery of a leprosy sufferer in Christchurch. As further patients arrived from across the country, it grew into a controversial and troubled institution – an embarrassment to the Health Department, an object of pity to a few, a source of fear to many. This remarkable narrative reveals a little-known aspect of New Zealand’s past, shedding light on the treatment of some of society’s most marginal, unfortunate and isolated people. Written in lucid, compelling prose, The Dark Island heralds the arrival of a significant historical voice.