Shirley Simmonds

Tane’s War by Brendaniel Weir (Cloudink Press, 2018), 352 pp., $29.95

From the outset I was intrigued by the title of this book: Tane’s War. The idea of Tāne, the atua of the forest and the realm of peace, seemed to conflict with the idea of war – the domain of Tūmatauenga. This was enough to spark my interest to open the enticing red cover of the debut novel by Brendaniel Weir.

Tane’s War spans two time periods and locations: the Great War in Europe, and rural Auckland in 1954. The consistent character across the two storylines is Tane. We follow him in his youth as he flees from family shame and the law, travels by ocean to Europe as a soldier, and there forms a bond with a British officer, a relationship that must be concealed in a setting where manliness and heroism are prized. [Read more…]

Emma Gattey

Fishing for Māui by Isa Pearl Ritchie (Te Rā Aroha Press, 2018), 366pp., $34.99

Fishing for Māui opens with an inconsequential death on the first page – or rather, the belated realisation that something once vital (here, a plum tree) has been dead for some time. This moribund motif reverberates throughout Isa Pearl Ritchie’s novel: the sense that something is broken, dead or dying, along with an accompanying sense of futility. Drawing upon her doctoral thesis on food sovereignty and her experience growing up in a bicultural family, Ritchie has written a multi-perspective novel about food, whānau and mental illness in Aotearoa New Zealand. Although the conduits differ for each character – kai, indigenous culture, adultery, drugs, activism – there is a real hunger in this book for wellness, freedom, self-acceptance and a better life. Through various Kiwi voices, Ritchie addresses some of our most pressing domestic issues: family discord, mental illness, physical health and racism. Unfortunately, this multivocal work never quite harmonises or achieves momentum. [Read more…]

Lynley Edmeades

The Ice Shelf by Anne Kennedy (Victoria University Press, 2018), 320pp., $30; The Bed-Making Competition by Anna Jackson (Brio Books, 2018), 112 pp., $17.99

Anne Kennedy is a household name in New Zealand letters. She’s been publishing compelling work since the late 80s and doesn’t show any sign of letting up. Her poetry, screenplays, novels and short stories have fetched various awards on these shores and beyond, and her movement between and across genres shows her dexterity and proclivity towards experimentation. [Read more…]

Ruth Brown

The Life of De’Ath by Majella Cullinane (Steele Roberts Aotearoa, 2018), 242pp., $34.99

If Mephistopheles has been making a comeback, it’s in new guises appropriate for societies that don’t believe in hell: in London’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse production of Doctor Faustus, she was a mischievously jolly best friend rather than the embodiment of evil. In Majella Cullinane’s multi-layered debut novel, he’s an amiable and reliable narrator, and somewhat dissatisfied with his other-worldly status: there’s a clever twist at the end to explain his real identity and motivation. [Read more…]