Witty and ironic, this novel follows an intriguing return to the family home on the lonely margins of the sea. Stephanie was always the outsider - never allowed to play with the china dolls on the staircase landing, always on the edge of family events, shut out of the important secrets. Now, after many years, she returns to the family house, on the lonely margins of the sea, to care for her cousin Louise. But now it is her immediate past, too, that haunts her - the time she has spent locked away for a crime she dare not recall. With consummate skill, insight and poignancy, Shonagh Koea weaves her magic once again in this memorable novel.
Shonagh Koea exhibits her wonderful ability to combine the wry with the poignant in this finely observed short story. When asked which was her daughter, Alyssum's mother always used to say, 'The ugly one.' Alyssum has since made a life for herself, away from her old home. But her mother is now in hospital, suffering from dementia. Can Alyssum reach through the pain of the past or will her mother have the last word? Funny, touching, painful, this is quintessential Koea territory.
" ... Documents the history and development of [Post-colonial literatures in English, together with English and American literature] and includes original research relating to the literatures of some 50 countries and territories. In more than 1,600 entries written by more than 600 internationally recognized scholars, it explores the effect of the colonial and post-colonial experience on literatures in English worldwide.
The celebrated author of gentle despair and stylish horror takes a picaresque and light-hearted tilt at prostitution, the Mafia, real estate and the supernatural in this entertaining urban fairytale. Lydia, a gorgeous, blonde of uncertain age, has for several years been the chief entertainer at the Cote d'Azur, a high-class brothel of splendid architecture and decoration. Her sad and disorderly history is explored here in this ironical and richly adverbial novel of the mores and manners of the twenty-first century. The glittering cast of characters includes the viciously untasteful Kevin Crumlatch and his pathetic wife Moira, who spends much of her time reading New Age inspirational literature while wearing dirty slippers. This tongue-in-cheek novel hovers over the home of a group of disconsolate and eccentric ghosts, all former owners of the house, who are deeply upset by untalented flower arrangements, tasteless furniture, domestic disharmony, dislocated shoulders and lack of sex.
From fifteen of New Zealand's finest short-fiction practitioners come stories to delight, amuse and move. These stories have been gathered from a range of titles, published in recent years by Vintage New Zealand and commended by readers and reviewers alike. Owen Marshall is regularly described as New Zealand's finest living short-story writer and his subtle story included here is testament to his skill. Peter Hawes presents a wickedly funny story alongside an amusing and intriguing tale from Craig Cliff's Commonwealth Prize winning collection A Man Melting. There are two very different stories playing with the genre of crime writing, from Julian Novitz and Fiona Farrell, about whom one reviewer wrote: 'she has the rare ability of turning the mundane events of domestic life into profound human experiences'. The stories range from New Zealand settings, such as Shonagh Koea's 'Rain', to stories set in America, Australia, Russia, Morocco and the Galapagos Islands, among other places. Montana Award winner Charlotte Grimshaw is represented by a vivid story of a childhood experience in France, her short story collections having been twice placed in the prestigious Frank O'Connor shortlist. Among the many other prize-winning authors, Fiona Kidman has also had a collection, The Trouble with Fire, shortlisted for this award, and the story included here is from that fine book. Sue Orr's story 'Recreation' comes from From Under the Overcoat, which won the 2012 People's Choice Award at the NZ Post Book Awards. While Sue Orr's story is a contemporary riff on a Maori myth, there are several stories touching on the war, of recent travel, of colonial appropriation, of love and friendship. Other stories are by Witi Ihimaera, Stephanie Johnson, Sarah Laing, Carl Nixon, Sarah Quigley and Peter Wells. A fabulous smorgasbord to satisfy every taste.
A quirky, much-loved novel about a return home, a past love affair and an elephant. "It is many years since I turned the pages of the little book I wrote for the holy man, and the ivory covers creak as I open on the story of how I went to India . . . As my voice ascends, thin as the song of a lark, I see again the black eyes of the holy man, irises flecked with gold as he hands me the pen and paper. 'Oh sing to me, dreamer,' he said, and I began to write." Back home as she sorts out her deceased Mother's estate, Margaret Harris reflects on her time in India as mistress to a Maharajah. But there are many things that she has to confront in the present - her bullying lawyer, the aggressive neighbour, and the spectre of her failed relationship with her mother.
Smile is not merely a great unfinished album, but a living work of art that is all at once expansive, indeterminate, and resolutely pop. In the early 1960s, The Beach Boys rose from the suburbs of Hawthorne, California to become emissaries of a post-war American dream that fused middle-class aspiration and mobility with images of youth. Led by dream master Brian Wilson, their music gave voice to a Southern California mythos and compelled an audience across the nation and beyond to live out their own versions of the fantasy. By 1966, the encroaching counterculture added new dimensions of creative possibility to popular music. Looking to revise and expand, Brian Wilson sought collaboration with a brilliant musician named Van Dyke Parks. Together they began work on Smile, an ambitious album of music that refracted The Beach Boys' naïveté into a visionary exploration of American consciousness. Smile edged so close to greatness it seemed destined to become one of the most significant musical advances of its time. But the story didn't end quite like this. In this book of evocative essays, Sanchez traces the musical journey that transformed The Beach Boys from West Coast surf heroes into America's pop luminaries, and ultimately why Smile represents a tumultuous turning point in the history of popular music.
This remarkably unique book takes the conceit of the loneliness room to show how everyday artistic practice opens up loneliness to new definitions and new understandings. Refusing to pathologise loneliness, the book draws on the creative submissions supplied by its participants to demonstrate that being lonely can mean different things to different people in differing contexts. Filled with the photographs, paintings, videos, songs, and writings of its participants, The loneliness room is a deeply moving account of loneliness today. https://sredmond4.wixsite.com/lonelyroom
A memoir - with recipes - from a well-loved writer with a unique and quirky take on life. Looking back over her varied life in a range of roles, including daughter, wife, mother, journalist and novelist, Shonagh Koea has collected a store of vivid memories that often centre on food. In these moving vignettes, she recalls her past, giving us a privileged insight into her life and into a New Zealand that no longer exists, along with delicious recipes and a strong sense of the gentle yet significant encounters we have with strangers and acquaintances. Much more than a straightforward memoir, this book is an astute and sometimes wry observation of social interaction, of New Zealand's recent history and of the place that food has in our everyday lives. It is also the intriguing story of a unique writer, of her life, her thoughts and her work.
Blackly humorous yet poignant and multi-levelled, finely crafted and thoroughly entertaining, this short-story collection is from a unique writer with a rare and distinctive talent. 'Reading Shonagh Koea's stories . . . is like sampling a box of good, rich chocolates. Read (or eat) too many at once and there's a risk of sensual overload; restrict yourself to one or two, and you miss the pleasure of indulgence, and the subtle distinction of each offering.' So a reviewer in New Zealand Books summed up what another called Shonagh Koea's 'always stylish and scrupulously crafted' writing. Her short stories have been widely admired for their dexterity with language, startingly original imagery, a fine sense of irony that slices through any pretence and a wicked, black humour. Shonagh Koea's first short stories were published in such magazines as the Listener and Metro, and in 1981 she won the Air New Zealand Short Story Competition. Two collections followed: The Woman Who Never Went Home and Other Stories and Fifteen Rubies by Candlelight. While she is best known as a novelist, her short stories have a wide following, as the Nelson Evening Mail commented: 'Shonagh Koea is as addictive as nicotine or coffee - with, perhaps, major withdrawal symptoms.'
