Philippa Jamieson Glam Rock Boyfriends: An imaginary memoir, by Raewyn Alexander (Brightspark Books, 2014), 426 pp., $65 The title of this novel and the yellow, red and black cover are arresting, and provoked comment from several friends and family members as I was reading it. The front cover image is part of the torso of […]

Michael Morrissey The Families, by Vincent O’Sullivan, (Victoria University Press, 2014), 251 pp., $35 Vincent O’Sullivan is arguably our most versatile literary writer. He is one of our most gifted and reliable poets and in recognition of his poetic prowess, he is the current poet laureate. He may well be our finest short story writer […]

Tasha Haines The Demolition of the Century, by Duncan Sarkies (Penguin, 2013), 408 pp., $30 Tom Spotswood (a.k.a. William McGinty) is an insurance investigator who has lost his socks, his suitcase, his career, his ex-wife and, most importantly, his son, Frank. He is being followed by Robert Valentine, the mysterious owner of the horse with […]

Lawrence Jones The Bright Side of my Condition, by Charlotte Randall (Penguin, 2014), 244 pp., $30 After setting her first novel, Dead Sea Fruit (1995), in the familiar time and place of Dunedin of the 1970s, Charlotte Randall has often set her stories in more distant times and places, such as Bedlam mental asylum in […]

Nicholas Reid Empty Bones and others Stories, by Breton Dukes (Victoria University Press, 2014), 182 pp., $30 Back in 2011, when I reviewed Breton Dukes’ debut book of short stories Bird North and other Stories, I was careful to note that one has to distinguish between an author’s skill on the one hand, and an […]

Hilary Lapsley Who Was that Woman Anyway? Snapshots of a Lesbian Life, by Aorewa McLeod (Victoria University Press, 2013), 222 pp., $35 In a prefatory statement to her ‘novel’, Who Was that Woman Anyway? Snapshots of a Lesbian Life, Aorewa McLeod invites the reader to wonder about the extent to which the novel is fictional: […]

Tasha Haines Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings, by Tina Makereti (Random House, 2014), 280 pp., $37.99 Where the Rēkohu Bone Sings is a fascinating and revealing novel by Tina Makereti, who is ‘of Ngāti Tāwharetoa, Te Āti Awa, Ngāti Maniapoto, Pākehā, and in all probability Moriori descent’, says the book’s introduction. The emotional trajectory of […]

Jenny Powell Rising to the Surface, by Latika Vasil (Steele Roberts Publishers, 2013), 128 pp., $29.99 Rising to the surface is a slow process. There is furniture to navigate, the world beyond the window to consider and the difficult decision of doors; should one anxiously open them or leave well alone. The underwater world, depicted […]

Azure Rissetto The Last Days of the National Costume, by Anne Kennedy, (Allen and Unwin, 2013), 388 pp., $37 In her novel The Last Days of the National Costume, Anne Kennedy has produced a sexy, authentic, and highly amusing page-turner, which certainly deserves the wide readership it has already attracted – judging by waiting lists […]

Christine Johnston Wake, by Elizabeth Knox (Victoria University Press, 2013), 445 pp., $35.00 Only one ship is seeking us, a black- Sailed unfamiliar, towing at her back A huge and birdless silence. In her wake No waters breed or break. The final stanza of Philip Larkin’s poem ‘Next, Please’ introduces Elizabeth Knox’s novel Wake, and […]

Kiran Dass The Fall of Light, by Sarah Laing (Vintage, 2013), 339 pp., $38.00 With cities, it is as with dreams: everything imaginable can be dreamed, but even the most unexpected dream is a rebus that conceals a desire or, its reverse, a fear. Cities, like dreams, are made of desires and fears, even if […]