Fiction Genres Recent Picks

New Zealand fiction

January 2009

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Sonata for Miriam by Linda Olsson. (2008)
"When Adam Anker loses his daughter Miriam, he loses his hold on life. After a year of grieving, he decides to embark on a journey of discovery. His daughter’s unanswered questions merge with his own: who am I? Adam’s journey takes him to Krakow, where his life once began, and where now he tracks down some of the secrets of the past, to Stockholm where his life continued. And, on an island off Sweden’s rocky coast, to the woman who gave his life meaning." (Book cover)

Chinese opera, Ian Wedde. (2008)
"'Little Frank' is 120 years old and he's lost his mind, or the part that can put damaged memories back together. Once the gang boss of 'The Place', he's traded his imagination for secure long life. Trapped in a luxurious present of mindless routine, he's jolted awake in 2090 to the bizarre facts of his world: his obsession with the female lead at the Chinese Opera, his unsavoury liaison with the Binh Xuyen body-part pirates, their surveillance of his movements. To rebuild this memory, Little Frank has to abandon longevity. Will he recover the truth before he Times Out? Will he have time to understand his obsession with the singer Madame Hee? What happened to the young mother who abandoned him? Will he have time to revenge himself on the ghoulish Dr Smiles, and the wet-liver-lipped Binh Xuyen boss, Tamar? Will Little Frank finish his Chinese Opera?." (Amazon)

How to murder a mango by J. Bowler. (2008)
"When retiree, Charles, finds support for the idea of an international cookery contest using the mango fruit as a symbol of world peace he can’t know that it will lead to mayhem and absurdity. Celebrity chefs from Britain, Germany, South Africa, New Zealand, Vanuatu, Hawaii and South Korea converge on the small Australian town of Wombat Crossing to compete in the creation of memorable mango cuisine. Love, lust and mangoes combine in a humorous tale of culinary ambition, with only one thing being certain, life in Wombat Crossing will never be the same." (Book cover)

Dreamboat Dad by Alan Duff. (2008)
"Yank is an ordinary enough teenager, except that he lives in a thermal wonderland (frequented by tourists eager to view the geysers and boiling mud) and except for the fact that one of those tourists (an American soldier visiting during the Second World War) was his father. The locals gave the boy the nickname of Yank, a name that makes him different and ensures his mother's husband will never accept him as his own. So who was Yank's real father? Yank has only his dreams to fill the void, until the day a letter arrives." (Amazon)

The black land : a novel of ancient times by Pauline Freestone. (2008)
"In 12th dynasty Egypt one man held as much power as the Pharaoh Senuseret himself. That man was Zaphenath-Paneh, better known as Joseph son of Jacob, a prince among his own people, and a slave in a foreign land; loved and hated; betrayed. Into his troubled life have come three women; his sister, a slave girl and a priestess. Each affect him in a different way and together help him towards his final reconciliation. Dinah, beautiful and sad, has her own troubled past to negotiate. Eppi, is wilful, rebellious, and a slave in body only. Asenath, daughter of the priest of On, bounded by duty, seeking truth from her husband's God." (Amazon)

Divine by Michelle Holman. (2008)
"Tara Whitehead finds out the hard way when her husband decides he’d rather be a woman. Fate, in the unlikely form of her husband’s reprobate uncle, intervenes. With nowhere else to go, Tara heads for a quiet life in Divine, as fast as her designer stiletto heels will take her. Instead, there’s the infuriating diary farmer she keeps clashing with, a scurrilous property developer, and a disgraceful incident at a PTA meeting. And mud, lots of mud with manure. But when the mysterious Sian makes Tara an unexpected offer, her life moves from slightly unhinged to hilariously bizarre." (Book cover)

On top of everything by Sarah-Kate Lynch. (2008)
"Rotten things happen in threes in Florence's family so when she's fired by her best friend and left by her husband in the space of a single afternoon, she knows there is yet more trouble brewing. And when her son Monty returns from his gap year Down Under it's only too clear what, or who, that trouble is. Then the plan to turn her crumbling home into a tea room hits a snag, the macramé at her sister's house starts to seriously unravel, and why is her doctor leaving so many messages? Enter Will, a mysterious handyman with a secret stash of chocolate truffles, and soon life, with all its hiccups, is just her cup of tea." (Book cover)

Girlie by Gillian Ranstead. (2008)
"A remote valley in the New Zealand hills, the late 1950. Displaced from their ancient lands by the Battle of Culloden and with their family heritage unravelling ever since, the Dunne family farm tenuously, in a valley gifted to them by Maori friends. Girlie is Mara’s story. As she grows up amongst her conflicted family and destructive events, her story moves with an often visionary intensity between hill country and town, 1960’s Washington DC and several centuries of the Scottish highlands. Lost, troubles and tenacious she slowly finds connections between memory, history, ancestors and dreams." (Book cover)

The devils are here : lifting the lid on gangs and drugs by Cam Stokes. (2008)
"Ex-cop Cam Stokes knows gangs. His explosive novel, with language to match, takes you inside an outlaw motorcycle gang; the Devils M.C. Gang prospect Rotten craves respect and power. He wants his patch so badly he'll do anything to get it. Before he's accepted, though, Rotten must prove himself to the gang. But Rotten's got problems. The cops are on his tail. He's struggling to control his violent temper, and his growing reliance on P is threatening to ruin everything. And all this is happening, here, now." (Book cover)

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