Fiction Genres Recent Picks
New Zealand fiction
November 2009
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Butterscotch : a novel by Lyn Loates. (2009)
When Helen Mainyard was eight years old, her father suddenly uprooted the family from their home in Christchurch and settled them in Melbourne. Helen had always believed the move was her father's response to a vicious murder that happened in the city because, as she remembers, the murder affected 'everyone - all the people of Christchurch.' But when she is twenty-one the real reason for the family's departure declares itself and causes Helen to re-visit scenes from her childhood, in particular a dark, brooding homestead called Amberley which, together with its climbing tree, had once held the inquisitive girl in its thrall. The remembered murder and the remembered house, both surreptitiously woven into her psyche, ultimately collide and together lead Helen to unearth a trail of human transgressions. (Book cover)
As the earth turns silver : a novel, Alison Wong. (2009)
From the late nineteenth century to the 1920,s, from Kwangtung, China to Wellington and Dunedin and the battlefields of the Western Front, a story of two families. Yung faces a new land that does not welcome the Chinese. Alone, Katherine struggles to raise her children and find her place in the world. In a climate of hostility towards the foreign newcomers, Katherine and Yung embark on a poignant and far reaching love affair. (Book cover)
Cut & run Alix Bosco. (2009)
When a rugby star who began life on the toughest city streets is murdered in the arms of a beautiful celebrity, it seems to be an open and shut case of a drug deal gone wrong. But Anna Markunas, legal researcher for the prime suspect's defence team, begins to uncover a far more sinister truth, one that could tear down everything and everyone she cares about most. And could ultimately, destroy her. (Book cover)
Who sings for Lu? by Alan Duff. (2009)
This moving, fast-paced novel is set in two contrasting worlds: the rich, horse-breeding milieu of Riley Chadwick and his family, and the hand-to-mouth life on the street of Lu and her mates. What happens when these worlds collide? Riley’s daughter, Anna, seems to have everything: looks, money, confidence. Lu has nothing except her friends and the sense of inferiority and rage she feels the moment she sets eyes on Anna Chadwick, feelings that will run out of control. (Book cover)
What remains behind by Dorothy Fowler. (2009)
Everything leaves a trace. Chloe, a contract archaeologist, is excavating the site of a religious Kaipara Harbour community, which burnt to the ground in the 1880’s. As the site is uncovered, what unpalatable truths will be uncovered about the events on the night of the fire? Chloe’s own family has farmed this land, and she is caught in the conflict as local resistance to the excavation mounts. When Chloe digs up more than shards of pottery, she realises that the site holds secrets that will not stay buried, and their effect on the present is devastating. (Book cover)
Access road by Maurice Gee. (2009)
This is a novel of family secrets and tensions, and distant past grievances, set like so much of Maurice Gee's fiction in the West Auckland town of Loomis. Three brothers and sisters, all now in their eighties, two of them living in the old family home, are struggling to cope with events that have happened way back in the past. It all bursts into the open when an old school friend visits Loomis, with malice in his heart. He keeps the biggest secret of all, about the disappearance of a girl many years before. As the novel reaches its climax, the tensions reach breaking point, and violence breaks out. The death of one of the protagonists seems inevitable. (Publisher’s description)
Pliny's warning, by Anne Maria Nicholson. (2009)
Volcanologist Frances Nelson is in Italy to work with an international team assessing the world’s most dangerous volcano, Mt. Vesuvius, responsible for the destruction of ancient Pompeii. Instead of the straightforward scientific task she expects, Frances is thrust into a sinister web of nepotism as greed, corruption and Il Sistema fill the streets with violence and pollute the countryside with toxic waste. To her horror, she realises her work is being compromised, her team’s findings suppressed and the people of southern Italy put into a perilous situation. (Book cover)
Banquo's son by T.K. Roxborogh. (2009)
For Fleance, the only son of Banquo, Thane of Lochaber, the time has come to make a choice. Since his father’s brutal murder ten years ago, he has hidden in the woods of Northern England, keeping his identity a secret from all. Now Fleance must unmask his enemies and discover why he is plagued by his father’s ghost. But everything in life has a price. Fleance must sacrifice his love for Rosie and journey back to his homeland if he is to find the answers and fulfil his father’s dying wish. The choices he makes will change his life forever while the secrets from his past threaten to bring down the throne of Scotland. (Book cover)
Short Stories
The man in the shed : stories by Lloyd Jones. (2009)
This is a haunting collection of stories about family and longing. Lloyd Jones takes conventional family life and tilts it sideways, what follows is a sublime blend of the suburban and the surreal, achingly beautiful and unforgettable. (Book cover)
Living as a moon by Owen Marshall. (2009)
This new collection of stories from master short fiction writer Owen Marshall is rich with people exploring their identities and how they are affected by others. There is Patrick, whose life is radically altered by a random encounter with a killer; widowed Margaret, who faces a new kid of existence alone; David, who experiences the ‘spontaneous and passing friendship of strangers’; Ian, whose wife’s demands a for a better lifestyle lead him to a new career in telephone sex. Set in both Europe and the Antipodes, these twenty-five stories are at once arresting, moving, funny and full of insight into the human condition. (Book cover)
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