New ttitles from V.U.P.

Wherever bodies of water are, people settle, and stories collect. Six generations of poet Airini Beautrais family have lived near the Whanganui River, the restless, all-encompassing figure at the heart of her fourth collection Flow. Flow is a brilliant polyphony of stories – large, small, geological, ecological and human – that draw on many forms and voices and move through various stages of human settlement up to the present day. In March 2017, in a world first, the Whanganui River was granted the status of legal personhood. Available from 13 July, p/b, $30.

 

It’s 1975. A time of protest and upheaval is ending. A few years earlier, the world was in disarray. While protesters filled the streets, the Soviets disseminated time machine images of 9/11. Plans for jet air travel were shelved and the Twin Towers were never built. When time travel was made illegal, it moved underground – into a world of time travel machines servicing a demimonde of addicts, spies, bankers and activists. Our Future Is in the Air is a captivating work about the invisible forces that make us who we are: science, politics, power – and our hoped-for futures. Available from 13 July, p/b, $30.

 

Jonathan Mane-Wheoki was a much loved and respected academic and curator of broad and varied interests. Colonial Gothic to Māori Renaissance is a remarkable tribute to his memory from friends, colleagues and former students alike. Its contents are as varied and interesting as the man himself: Victorian church architecture and liturgy, mysticism, traditional and contemporary Māori art, and the artists Thomas Benjamin Kennington, Gottfried Lindauer, Colin McCahon, Tony Fomison, Philip Clairmont and Emily Karaka are all included here. Available from 13 July, h/b, colour illustrations, $80.