Tōku Pāpā by Ruby Solly. Wellington: VUP (2021). RRP: $25.00. Pb, 80pp. ISBN: 9781776564125. Reviewed by Jessie Neilson. Ruby Solly (Kāi Tahu, Waitaha, Kāti Māmoe) is a Wellington-based cellist, composer, and poet. This is her first published poetry collection, and it draws on her preoccupations with heritage, family, myths and legends, and landscape. Tōku Pāpā…
THE ANTIPODEAN DANTE More Favourable Waters: Aotearoa poets respond to Dante’s Purgatory edited by Marco Sonzogni and Timothy Smith. Wellington: The Cuba Press (2021). RRP: $25.00. Pb, 98pp. ISBN: 978-1-98-859535-1. Reviewed by Andrew Wood. In the 1980s’ reboot of The Twilight Zone, there was a segment called “I of Newton” in which a mathematician accidently summoned…
I Am in Bed with You by Emma Barnes. Auckland: Auckland University Press, Auckland (2021). RRP $24.99. Pb, 88pp. ISBN: 8978169409203. Reviewed by Patricia Prime. Emma Barnes is not greatly given to the surreal but exhibits from the first proclivities which, if not disconcerting, are at least intriguing. Living in Aro Valley, Wellington, their poetry…
Hailman by Leanne Radojkovich. United Kingdom: The Emma Press (2021). RRP: $30.00. Pb, 97pp. ISBN: 9781912915705a. Reviewed by Nod Ghosh. Leanne Radojkovich carries her readers across a range of emotions in Hailman. This is the author’s second book in the short-form. There is nothing ‘showy’ about Radojkovich’s writing. These are the well-honed words of an…
Before You Knew My Name by Jacqueline Bublitz. New South Wales: Allen & Unwin (2021). RRP: $32.99. Pb, 326pp. ISBN: 978 1 76087 885 6. Reviewed by Rebecca Styles. Alice Lee is dead. But this novel isn’t a classic whodunnit. Instead, it’s a story of two women under the male gaze. Unknown to each other,…
Crossing the Lines: The story of three homosexual New Zealand soldiers in WWII by Brett Coutts. Dunedin: Otago University Press 2020. RRP: $49.95. Pb, 336pp. ISBN 9781988592381. Reviewed by Andrew Wood. It wasn’t all that long ago that a history of LGBT life in New Zealand would have been difficult to publish. Indeed, New Zealand’s…
Times Like These: On grief, hope & remarkable love by Michelle Langstone. Allen & Unwin NZ (2021). RRP: $36.99. Pb, 264pp. ISBN: 9781988547527. Reviewed by S J Mannion. This book is a beautifully structured collection of 11 essays, each one utterly individual yet intimately connected to the other, each one exquisitely personal yet universal. The…
2000ft Above Worry Level by Eamonn Marra. Wellington: Victoria University Press (2020). RRP: $30. Pb, 192pp. ISBN: 9781776562978. Reviewed by S J Mannion. Eamonn Marra is a New Zealand writer and comedian from Christchurch who now lives in Wellington. Previously better known for his comedy shows, 2000ft Above Worry Level is his first book. …
Victory Park by Rachel Kerr. Wellington: Mākaro Press (2020). RRP: $35.00. Pb, 246pp. ISBN: 9780995111059. Reviewed by Rachel Smith. Victory Park is Kara’s story, a young woman living in a block of council flats from which the novel takes its title. When we meet her, Kara is moving through life as best she can, her…
Wish, I Wish by Zirk van den BergWellington: The Cuba Press (2020)RRP: $25. Pb, 178pp.ISBN:978-1-98-859528-3Reviewed by Jessie Neilson White Lily Funerals is on the main road of a typical city in an unnamed country, jammed between Supercheap Auto and Discount Wheels. For nearly a quarter century it has been the workplace of Seb, an embalmer,…