Richard von Sturmer reviews the new novel by Wellington author Carl Shuker – a tense, razor-sharp story of a surgeon who makes a fatal mistake. The story that Carl Shuker tells in his novel A Mistake is delivered in a concise, razor-sharp style without an ounce of fat left on the bone. Such imagery is appropriate: … Read more
A new book of translated Māori verse joins Taika Waititi “in his calling out of language laziness”. So why were the authors ignored by a literary festival looking for new voices? An essay by the book’s co-editor, Vana Manasiadis. Tātai Whetū means constellation of stars. It also means tongue twister. In Tātai Whetū: Seven Māori Women … Read more
Ian Fraser on a new, brilliantly told account of the famous 1862 killings on a remote track between Nelson and Marlborough. It’s hard to imagine anyone telling the story of colonial psychopath Richard Burgess (1829-66) better than Wayne Martin in this gripping and vivid history. Step by step, Martin shows the leader of the Burgess Gang following … Read more
Peter Simpson writes exclusively for the Spinoff about his new, much talked-about book on the all-painting, all-chattering intelligentsia of Christchurch in the 1930s. In 1938 the musician Fred Page returned to Christchurch from studying at the Royal College of Music in London. On his first day back he ran into his friend the poet Allen … Read more
Holly Walker reviews the working-class white New Zealand fuck-ups, suicides and predators in Tracey Slaughter’s amazing new story collection deleted scenes for lovers. “It is possible to say it,” says one of Tracey Slaughter’s narrators in deleted scenes for lovers, steeling herself to name the cancer that is eating her body from the inside. She … Read more
Marion McLeod reviews Before the War by Fay Weldon. I threw away all my Fay Weldons last year. Well, I didn’t actually throw them. I piled them into a rusting supermarket trolley and pushed them across the road to Arty Bees. All of them – about two dozen novels (mostly hardback), a few collections of … Read more