Steam Press is
ecstatic to announce that Mansfield with Monsters, a book of Katherine
Mansfield's short stories with cunningly interwoven alien invaders, zombies,
and sea monsters, is one of the Listener's top 100 books of 2012. The
book features seventeen of Mansfield's most popular works such as "The
Garden Party" and "The Doll's House", with the characters in
each beset by a different creature or supernatural horror.
Simon Litten, one
of New Zealand's most prolific reviewers of science fiction and fantasy books,
was full of praise in his review of this book, stating that "if Pride
and Prejudice and Zombies was a one note song then Mansfield with
Monsters is a choral piece of depth and vibrancy" while the Listener's
review called the book "grand fun" and noted that "you never
know what the fantasy element in a given story will be, and the uncertainty
transforms the reading experience delightfully".
Kapiti Coast
authors Matt and Debbie Cowens were over the moon when they heard that the book
was listed in this year's top 100. "It's a bloody awesome Christmas
present to make the list! For a book with the potential to polarise readers and
reviewers we're delighted that so many have embraced the spirit of the book and
not taken offence."
Matt and Debbie are
high school English teachers, and both are also authors. After years of
decoding classic New Zealand fiction such as Katherine Mansfield's short
stories for their students, they decided to try a different approach.
"Mansfield's stories are beautiful, subtle, and mature –perhaps too subtle
for some students. We kept the beauty and maturity, and populated the stories
with lizard people, mummies, werewolves, and magic. We hoped that students
would find a subtle theme easier to swallow when washed down with gallons of
blood."
They have certainly
achieved that, and far more. The book has proved to be hugely popular – it has
been reprinted twice since it was launched in July –with many readers now
revisiting the original stories as well.
"A lot of
people are reading Mansfield with Monsters alongside her original
stories," Steam Press editor Stephen Minchin says. "It's great fun
reading these new versions and trying to figure out what Matt and Debbie have
changed. Their work is so seamless that it's almost impossible to tell where
they've added little hints about what's coming, and then a mummy lurches out of
the undergrowth and you almost wonder if that's what Mansfield had been
building towards all along."
Mansfield with Monsters is available now from all good booksellers.
Stephen Minchin,
the owner of Steam Press, can be contacted at :
stephen@steampress.co.nz or on 021 127 3925.
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