DEBUT BOOK FROM LONG-TIME JOURNO, FIRST-TIME AUTHOR

After nearly a year of hibernation Wellington publishing collective Lawrence & Gibson is back with both a new book and a new author.

Brannavan Gnanalingham’s ‘Getting Under Sail’ tells the story of three New Zealanders on an ad hoc road-trip through West Africa. Starting in Morocco, the three aim to reach Ghana. Via Western Sahara, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo and Benin. Their general cluelessness is hampered by arrests, their stinginess, and their overall refusal to engage with the people around them.

A sly critique on stereotypes of "Africa", Getting Under Sail is at once a deeply cynical travelogue, a wistful coming-of-age tale, and comic account of snobbery and entitlement. It's also a little adventure tale, told by a narrator who thinks Kerouac, a guide book, a smattering of French, and friends are all you need to travel.

“V.S. Naipaul with a heart? Paul Theroux with a friend? Bill Bryson with cajones?,” Lawrence and Gibson junior editor Richard Meros asks.

“ No, no, no. Leave your superlatives in your valise. Gnanalingam doesn’t hype up the places he visits, the friends he loses or the characters he encounters.”

Author Brannavan Gnanalingam has won awards and been published in all sorts of places, including the Listener, the Dominion Post, and was part of the Lumiere Reader's Qantas Media award winning Film Festival team However, he has never been published by Lawrence & Gibson. All that is changing with his debut novel, Getting Under Sail which is set to be released on March 24.

Lawrence & Gibson are proud to present Brannavan Gnanalingam’s Getting Under Sail Book Launch.
Thursday March 24th at 6pm at Garden Bar, 13 Dixon Street, Wellington.

http://www.lawrenceandgibson.org/