RECENT & FORTHCOMING NEW ZEALAND TITLES
THE CROSSING
Mandy Hager
Random House $19.99
Margaret Mahy read this and commented “like 1984 for teenager-direct passionate & powerful”. I’m with Margaret on this one. A riveting read, I couldn’t put it down.
The cover blurb is spot on –
The Crossing is the first book in a stunning new trilogy that follows the fate of Maryam and her unlikely companions – Joseph, Ruth and Lazarus. Trapped in a rigid society that seeks to control many aspects of their lives, the four teens begin to question the beliefs of their people and the motivations of those that lead them. This is fast, suspenseful drama underpinned by a powerful and moving story about love and loss.
About the author:
Mandy Hager’s parents were born in Vienna and Zanzibar, meeting in Otaki in the 1950s. They settled in Levin, where Mandy grew up. Mandy is a trained primary school teacher and specialised in working with people with learning disabilities. She also has an Advanced Diploma in Applied Arts (Writing) and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing.
As well as writing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, mentoring, assessing and the occasional tutoring, she has also written community resources for the Global Education Centre, on subjects as diverse as Violence Against Women, Non-Violent Resistance, Climate Change Politics, Drug Trafficking, Big Business and Hip Hop!
Her novel Smashed was named as a notable book by the Children’s Literature Foundation in 2008 and went on to win the Esther Glen Award for the most distinguished book of children’s fiction in 2008.
She lives in Wellington and is married with two adult children.
LEGEND OF A SUICIDE
David Vann
Penguin $28
Roy is still young when his father, a failed dentist and hapless fisherman, puts a .44 magnum to his head and commits suicide on the deck of his beloved boat.
Throughout his life Roy returns to that moment, gripped by its memory and the shadow it casts over his small-town boyhood, describing with poignant, mercurial wit his parents’ woeful marriage and inevitable divorce, the absurd and comic turning points of his past.
Finally, in Legend of a Suicide, Roy lays his father’s ghost to rest. But not before he exacts a gruelling, exhilarating revenge.
The publisher’s suggest that Vann is an astonishing new voice in American fiction for fans of Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff and Cormac McCarthy.
Whether that is hyperbole or not is for you to decide but I found it most readable and intensely moving. Dealing with a father’s suicide must be incredibly difficult to cope with and although the book is a work of fiction the author says, “it is based n a lot that is true”.
I am taking a bit of license here in calling this a NZ title but the author does live part of each year here!
About the author:
David Vann was born in Alaska. He is a regular contributor of several US magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire and Outside. Vann spends several months of the year in Taupo Bay north of Auckland where he owns a house.
THE CROSSING
Mandy Hager
Random House $19.99
Margaret Mahy read this and commented “like 1984 for teenager-direct passionate & powerful”. I’m with Margaret on this one. A riveting read, I couldn’t put it down.
The cover blurb is spot on –
The Crossing is the first book in a stunning new trilogy that follows the fate of Maryam and her unlikely companions – Joseph, Ruth and Lazarus. Trapped in a rigid society that seeks to control many aspects of their lives, the four teens begin to question the beliefs of their people and the motivations of those that lead them. This is fast, suspenseful drama underpinned by a powerful and moving story about love and loss.
About the author:
Mandy Hager’s parents were born in Vienna and Zanzibar, meeting in Otaki in the 1950s. They settled in Levin, where Mandy grew up. Mandy is a trained primary school teacher and specialised in working with people with learning disabilities. She also has an Advanced Diploma in Applied Arts (Writing) and a Master of Arts in Creative Writing.
As well as writing a wide range of fiction and non-fiction, mentoring, assessing and the occasional tutoring, she has also written community resources for the Global Education Centre, on subjects as diverse as Violence Against Women, Non-Violent Resistance, Climate Change Politics, Drug Trafficking, Big Business and Hip Hop!
Her novel Smashed was named as a notable book by the Children’s Literature Foundation in 2008 and went on to win the Esther Glen Award for the most distinguished book of children’s fiction in 2008.
She lives in Wellington and is married with two adult children.
LEGEND OF A SUICIDE
David Vann
Penguin $28
Roy is still young when his father, a failed dentist and hapless fisherman, puts a .44 magnum to his head and commits suicide on the deck of his beloved boat.
Throughout his life Roy returns to that moment, gripped by its memory and the shadow it casts over his small-town boyhood, describing with poignant, mercurial wit his parents’ woeful marriage and inevitable divorce, the absurd and comic turning points of his past.
Finally, in Legend of a Suicide, Roy lays his father’s ghost to rest. But not before he exacts a gruelling, exhilarating revenge.
The publisher’s suggest that Vann is an astonishing new voice in American fiction for fans of Richard Ford, Tobias Wolff and Cormac McCarthy.
Whether that is hyperbole or not is for you to decide but I found it most readable and intensely moving. Dealing with a father’s suicide must be incredibly difficult to cope with and although the book is a work of fiction the author says, “it is based n a lot that is true”.
I am taking a bit of license here in calling this a NZ title but the author does live part of each year here!
About the author:
David Vann was born in Alaska. He is a regular contributor of several US magazines including The Atlantic Monthly, Esquire and Outside. Vann spends several months of the year in Taupo Bay north of Auckland where he owns a house.
THE PROPHET AND THE POLICEMAN
Mark Derby
Craig Potton Publishing $39.99
A 1916 police raid in Tuhoe country is the focus of this book that will be launched at Unity Books, Willis Street, Wellington from 6pm on Wednesday 19 August 2009.
The Commissioner of Police at that time, John Cullen, led the heavily armed raid in person. It was later acknowledged to have damaged the reputation both of the New Zealand Police and of the country’s race relations.
Author Mark Derby, a former Waitangi Tribunal historian, says “there are many
stories like this coming to light through the Treaty claims process and each one
helps explain a bit more about the reasons for strains in race relations between
Maori and Pakeha today.”
Derby’s new book ,The Prophet and the Policeman describes the
clash between two strong-willed men, Rua Kenana and John Cullen, both born
in the mid-nineteenth century. The police raid was on Rua’s religious community
at Maungapohatu, deep in the Ureweras, and left two of Rua’s followers dead and several others,including police, wounded.
The Prophet and the Policeman reads like a tightly written adventure novel rather than a
work of history, but is firmly based on research.
It follows its two central characters from their poverty-stricken origins to national prominence
and their fatal meeting at Maungapohatu. “Both Rua and Cullen were very flawed human beings,
and that, together with the great symbolism and drama in their lives, makes this such an
absorbing story,” says Derby.
OLD SOUTH
Life and Times in the Nineteenth-century Mainland
Matthew Wright
Penguin - $50
A lively new illustrated history of the South Island, Old South tells a story of triumphs, tragedies and
earnest hopes. Noted historian Matthew Wright paints a vibrant picture of mainland life from the 1840s, of the rise and fall of the first privately founded Pakeha settlements with their hopeful framework of social idealism, business enterprise and religious conviction.
About the author:
Matthew Wright has post-graduate degrees in history and has worked extensively as a professional historian, author and reviewer. He has written more than 500 articles and 30 books on topics from travel to social history, including a general history of New Zealand, two books on the New Zealand Wars, and a biography of Lieutenant-General Sir Bernard Freyberg. http://www.matthewwright.net/
LIVING AS A MOON
Owen Marshall
Vintage - $34.99
Only published on Monday of this week I have already seen and heard several rave reviews for this new collection from NZ’s current master of short form fiction.
Set in New Zealand and the Antipodes these twenty five stories explore the universality of the human condition with humour, wry observation and at times heart aching sadness. Marshall is an astute observer, whether revelling in minutia and mundane preoccupations, pricking pretensions or examining the deepest of human emotions, he has the ability to leap from sharp comedy to elegiac sadness.
About the author:
Owen Marshall is a novelist, short-story writer and poet, who has written or edited over twenty books to date. Awards for his fiction include the New Zealand Literary Fund Scholarship in Letters, fellowships at Otago and Canterbury universities and the Katherine Mansfield Memorial Fellowship in Menton, France.
In 2000 he received the ONZM for services to literature and his novel Harlequin Rex won the Montana New Zealand Book Awards Deutz Medal for Fiction. In 2002 the University of Canterbury awarded him the honorary degree of Doctor of Letters, and in 2005 appointed him an adjunct professor.
A GOOD KEEN MAN
50th Anniversary Edition
Barry Crump
Hodder Moa – Hardback - $44.99
Crump’s classic Kiwi yarn has been brought to life again in this celebratory hardback edition.
In the new foreword by long time friend and writer Jack Lasenby, Lasenby recounts his memories of Crump and his wonderful story-telling abilities.
The following paragraph from that foreword sums up the where Crump should sit in NZ literary history.:
‘Almost irrespective of their authors, certain works become emblematic.
Maning’s Old New Zealand, Te Rauparaha’s “KaMate”, Lady Barker’s
Station Life, Guthrie–Smith’s Tutira, Sargeson’s “An Affair of the Heart”,
Mulgan’s Man Alone, Glover’s Arawata Bill all capture, construct or even invent certain moments for ever, are history in the best sense.
Fifty years on, A Good Keen Man belongs with them.’
A Good Keen Man is the tale of a young joker’s introduction to the art of deer culling and is as rich and compelling now as when it was first published. Set against the rugged beauty of the New Zealand backcountry, it follows the exploits of a good keen man as he learns the skills necessary to become a good bushman. Unlike most authors on outdoor life, Barry Crump’s interest was fixed on people — able and cloddish, balanced and eccentric, mad, sad, funny and altogether marvellous people.
This title deserves the treatment the publishers have given it, reissuing it in a handsome hardcover edition, and word is that they plan similar treatment for some of his later novels too. Excellent.
For the record sales of A Good Keen Man exceed 300,000 copies to date, a number that will be given a nice nudge by this new edition.
Maning’s Old New Zealand, Te Rauparaha’s “KaMate”, Lady Barker’s
Station Life, Guthrie–Smith’s Tutira, Sargeson’s “An Affair of the Heart”,
Mulgan’s Man Alone, Glover’s Arawata Bill all capture, construct or even invent certain moments for ever, are history in the best sense.
Fifty years on, A Good Keen Man belongs with them.’
A Good Keen Man is the tale of a young joker’s introduction to the art of deer culling and is as rich and compelling now as when it was first published. Set against the rugged beauty of the New Zealand backcountry, it follows the exploits of a good keen man as he learns the skills necessary to become a good bushman. Unlike most authors on outdoor life, Barry Crump’s interest was fixed on people — able and cloddish, balanced and eccentric, mad, sad, funny and altogether marvellous people.
This title deserves the treatment the publishers have given it, reissuing it in a handsome hardcover edition, and word is that they plan similar treatment for some of his later novels too. Excellent.
For the record sales of A Good Keen Man exceed 300,000 copies to date, a number that will be given a nice nudge by this new edition.
1001 BEST THINGS TO SEE & DO IN NEW ZEALAND
Peter Janssen – Hodder Moa - $39.99
Peter Janssen – Hodder Moa - $39.99
This is the second edition of this, the popular New Zealand travel bible, and at almost 500 pages, it is bigger and more useful than ever. It has been completely updated and along with many new entries the author has added phone numbers to make booking ahead easier. Peter Janssen reckons he has pretty much covered the entire country but if readers want to suggest additions then he has provided an e-mail address in the book so that such suggestions can be incorporated into future editions.
The book includes both the obvious places to visit — Sky Tower, Whakarewarewa, Te Papa, Larnach’s Castle — and the quirky and not-so-well-known things to see and do — Woof Woof the Talking Tui, the Hamilton statue of Riff Raff celebrating the NZ connection to this iconic movie, Kawakawa’s Hundertwasser toilets, Te Apiti and Tararua Wind Farms, Wairoa Maori Film Festival, Foxton Windmill, Castlepoint Races, Shantytown, Timeball Station, 1066: A Medieval Mosaic, Barrytown Knifemaking and on it goes — there are hundreds of entries and something for everyone.
Where possible places were visited by the author as a ‘mystery shopper’ to ensure he got the experience any visitor would. He rates each place in three categories so you know whether it is worth a special trip, worth a detour if you are in the area or just worth a visit if you are passing. Listed by region the book is really easy to follow and makes a great companion to your road map.
Tourists, nature lovers, history enthusiasts and even armchair travellers will discover hours of pleasurable reading in this collection of the famous, not-so-famous, fun, interesting and down right strange.
Whether visiting New Zealand, embarking on a road trip or want to know where to send the visiting rellies, 1001 Best Things To See and Do in New Zealand should be in your bag. It is, after all THE travel bible.
About the author:
Born and raised in Huntly in the Waikato, Peter Janssen also lived in Southland, Canterbury and Wellington before moving to Auckland where he worked in the book publishing industry for many years. In fact The Bookman recalls working on various book industry bodies with him in years gone by. Since leaving publishing several years ago he has travelled constantly and extensively around New Zealand and has a number of fine travel books and guides to his credit. Well done Peter.
The book includes both the obvious places to visit — Sky Tower, Whakarewarewa, Te Papa, Larnach’s Castle — and the quirky and not-so-well-known things to see and do — Woof Woof the Talking Tui, the Hamilton statue of Riff Raff celebrating the NZ connection to this iconic movie, Kawakawa’s Hundertwasser toilets, Te Apiti and Tararua Wind Farms, Wairoa Maori Film Festival, Foxton Windmill, Castlepoint Races, Shantytown, Timeball Station, 1066: A Medieval Mosaic, Barrytown Knifemaking and on it goes — there are hundreds of entries and something for everyone.
Where possible places were visited by the author as a ‘mystery shopper’ to ensure he got the experience any visitor would. He rates each place in three categories so you know whether it is worth a special trip, worth a detour if you are in the area or just worth a visit if you are passing. Listed by region the book is really easy to follow and makes a great companion to your road map.
Tourists, nature lovers, history enthusiasts and even armchair travellers will discover hours of pleasurable reading in this collection of the famous, not-so-famous, fun, interesting and down right strange.
Whether visiting New Zealand, embarking on a road trip or want to know where to send the visiting rellies, 1001 Best Things To See and Do in New Zealand should be in your bag. It is, after all THE travel bible.
About the author:
Born and raised in Huntly in the Waikato, Peter Janssen also lived in Southland, Canterbury and Wellington before moving to Auckland where he worked in the book publishing industry for many years. In fact The Bookman recalls working on various book industry bodies with him in years gone by. Since leaving publishing several years ago he has travelled constantly and extensively around New Zealand and has a number of fine travel books and guides to his credit. Well done Peter.
SLEEPING WITH THE DEAD 
A Kiwi working with Bangkok’s bodysnatchers
Marko Cunningham
Random House - $37.99
Note - NZ pub date 18 September.
“The smell was even more intense here and I just wanted to get out of that area as soon as I could. We put the body down in a row with many others and I stood back and looked up and down the rows and estimated there were over 500 bodies there, as far as I could see. I was really in shock and had to force myself to go back and get another body from the truck. I couldn’t believe this was real. ‘This must be what hell is like,’ I said to myself.”
Expat Kiwi humanitarian, Marko Cunningham, shares — for the first time — the horrors of retrieving Thailand’s tsunami-dead.
Teacher by day, ‘body snatcher’ by night, this gentle, Wellington-raised, Buddhist still suffers from recurring nightmares about those two, life-changing weeks.
Writing his story has partly been therapy, but he also wanted to tell the story of who he believes are Thailand’s “unsung heroes”: the thousands of his fellow volunteers who work for the humanitarian NGO called the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, better known as ‘The Body Snatchers of Bangkok.’ This free ambulance service rescues the sick and injured and reclaims the dead in a superstitious culture where most people won’t touch cadavers.
Sleeping with the dead, in bookshops from 18 September, is a gripping, raw and ultimately entertaining account which Marko hopes provides Kiwis, who continue to enjoy the pleasures and delights of Thai tourism, with some insight into the darker and more complex side of this compelling and alluring culture where life has very little value and systemic, institutional corruption is rife. Interesting photos too.
Marko shares frankly and openly the daily and overwhelming horror of working around the clock, in sweltering heat, retrieving the thousands left dead in the wake of Thailand’s 2004 tsunami and its harrowing aftermath.
Although Marko had already worked for several years in Thailand for the foundation doing aid work, nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to endure in the devastating wake of the tsunami. Heading south to Phuket as soon as word of the tsunami came through, Marko listened to reports which down-played the situation.
It soon became apparent that the loss of life was on a massive and unprecedented scale: “I almost can’t remember much more about that night, I can’t remember how many bodies
I helped carry, and I can’t remember the faces of the dead or what I talked with people about that night. I couldn’t eat anything and quickly retired to bed, where I lay awake thinking of that place I guess I was in some kind of shock.”
He says: “This book is not just a story about my life here but takes look at a side of Thailand foreigners, or even Thais for that matter, rarely get to even know about; myths, beliefs, secrets and stories of the dead and the harsh world that surrounds everyday life in Bangkok mostly hidden from the eyes of unaware tourists.
“It also depicts the Emergency Medical System in Thailand and sheds light on its uniqueness. Being the only country in the world that offers this all-inclusive volunteer service, Thailand has shown that a community can be self-supportive of itself in this regard. It has benefits and downfalls but has survived a hundred years or more in this way.
“Some of what I say is very controversial and brutally honest. I do risk my own safety in writing about some of these things, but I am way past caring about my own safety. I face potential death every day in Thailand, safety is not a factor in my life anymore.
“If you have never been to Thailand then this is a must-read to help you understand the extremely complex nature of Thais and life, and death in Thailand. If you do live in Thailand, this may be an eye-opener to the everyday things around you.”
About the author:
Marko Cunningham was born in England but brought up in Wellington, NZ. He studied for a double degree in linguistics and management and became a Bhuddist before working and travelling through Asia. He is now a well-known face in Thailand and has been frequently featured by international media, including in the Lonely Planet series Six Degrees of Separation.
A Kiwi working with Bangkok’s bodysnatchers
Marko Cunningham
Random House - $37.99
Note - NZ pub date 18 September.
“The smell was even more intense here and I just wanted to get out of that area as soon as I could. We put the body down in a row with many others and I stood back and looked up and down the rows and estimated there were over 500 bodies there, as far as I could see. I was really in shock and had to force myself to go back and get another body from the truck. I couldn’t believe this was real. ‘This must be what hell is like,’ I said to myself.”
Expat Kiwi humanitarian, Marko Cunningham, shares — for the first time — the horrors of retrieving Thailand’s tsunami-dead.
Teacher by day, ‘body snatcher’ by night, this gentle, Wellington-raised, Buddhist still suffers from recurring nightmares about those two, life-changing weeks.
Writing his story has partly been therapy, but he also wanted to tell the story of who he believes are Thailand’s “unsung heroes”: the thousands of his fellow volunteers who work for the humanitarian NGO called the Ruamkatanyu Foundation, better known as ‘The Body Snatchers of Bangkok.’ This free ambulance service rescues the sick and injured and reclaims the dead in a superstitious culture where most people won’t touch cadavers.
Sleeping with the dead, in bookshops from 18 September, is a gripping, raw and ultimately entertaining account which Marko hopes provides Kiwis, who continue to enjoy the pleasures and delights of Thai tourism, with some insight into the darker and more complex side of this compelling and alluring culture where life has very little value and systemic, institutional corruption is rife. Interesting photos too.
Marko shares frankly and openly the daily and overwhelming horror of working around the clock, in sweltering heat, retrieving the thousands left dead in the wake of Thailand’s 2004 tsunami and its harrowing aftermath.
Although Marko had already worked for several years in Thailand for the foundation doing aid work, nothing could have prepared him for what he was about to endure in the devastating wake of the tsunami. Heading south to Phuket as soon as word of the tsunami came through, Marko listened to reports which down-played the situation.
It soon became apparent that the loss of life was on a massive and unprecedented scale: “I almost can’t remember much more about that night, I can’t remember how many bodies
I helped carry, and I can’t remember the faces of the dead or what I talked with people about that night. I couldn’t eat anything and quickly retired to bed, where I lay awake thinking of that place I guess I was in some kind of shock.”
He says: “This book is not just a story about my life here but takes look at a side of Thailand foreigners, or even Thais for that matter, rarely get to even know about; myths, beliefs, secrets and stories of the dead and the harsh world that surrounds everyday life in Bangkok mostly hidden from the eyes of unaware tourists.
“It also depicts the Emergency Medical System in Thailand and sheds light on its uniqueness. Being the only country in the world that offers this all-inclusive volunteer service, Thailand has shown that a community can be self-supportive of itself in this regard. It has benefits and downfalls but has survived a hundred years or more in this way.
“Some of what I say is very controversial and brutally honest. I do risk my own safety in writing about some of these things, but I am way past caring about my own safety. I face potential death every day in Thailand, safety is not a factor in my life anymore.
“If you have never been to Thailand then this is a must-read to help you understand the extremely complex nature of Thais and life, and death in Thailand. If you do live in Thailand, this may be an eye-opener to the everyday things around you.”
About the author:
Marko Cunningham was born in England but brought up in Wellington, NZ. He studied for a double degree in linguistics and management and became a Bhuddist before working and travelling through Asia. He is now a well-known face in Thailand and has been frequently featured by international media, including in the Lonely Planet series Six Degrees of Separation.
1 comment:
What a stack of reviews!
Just wanted to say I totally agree about Mandy Hager's 'The Crossing', stunning book, couldn't put it down and felt quite gobsmacked when I got to the end... I want book 2!
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