Philip Temple
Return to Harikoa Bay by Owen Marshall (Vintage, 2022), 304pp, $36
These stories are like the objets d’art that you find in a gallery in the Whitestone Quarter of Oamaru. They are various, small and large, arranged in good order on tables above old wooden floorboards that once supported bales of wool and the tread of nailed boots. Provincial, well crafted, mostly from the hands of the gallery owner who follows you around and explains what is particular about this and that. Which can be annoying so that, in the end, you are not sure what to buy or leave behind. [Read more…]