To conclude our week-long series on Greymouth writer Peter Hooper: two poems by his former student Jeffrey Paparoa Holman, from his new collection of verse, Blood Ties. Poem for John Pule: the last days of Peter Hooper Stoned on Waiheke on Pule’s grass that was a surprise: “Well, yes and no, Jeff, … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the English-speaking world. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Hit & Run: the NZ SAS in Afghanistan & The Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson (Potton Burton, $35) Hager, in an interview with Vice: “I feel confident that one way or another, they [the government] haven’t … Read more
All week this week we look at the life and writing of Greymouth novelist and poet Peter Hooper (1919-91). Today: a West Coast memoir by Steve Braunias. I was only passing through the West Coast, lived in Greymouth for not much more than a year, packed a picnic lunch and a copy of the newly … Read more
All week this week we revisit the life and writing of Greymouth author Peter Hooper (1919-91). Today: an excerpt from Hooper’s 1990 book Shade of the Mugumo Tree, a tender account of his journey to Kenya to visit Julius Kitivi, whom he sponsored through the Save the Children Fund. The two became close friends during … Read more
All week this week we look at the life and writing of Greymouth writer and conservationist Peter Hooper (1919-91). Today: a memoir by Hooper’s longtime friend and editor Brian Turner, taken from his speech at the launch in the weekend of Pat White’s biography. Peter Hooper is a name that is seldom mentioned when NZ … Read more
All week this week we look at the life and writing of Peter Hooper (1919-91), a Greymouth author who won the national book award in 1986 for a profound, exciting novel set on the West Coast after an apocalypse. He’s now a largely forgotten name in New Zealand letters, but a new biography provides a vivid reminder … Read more
The best-selling books at the two best bookstores in the English-speaking world. AUCKLAND UNITY 1 Hit and Run: The New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson (Potton & Burton, $35) “The New Zealand Defence Force appears to have destroyed the journalistic reputations of Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson”: Ian … Read more
George Saunders’ Lincoln in the Bardo is the year’s most talked-about novel, and there’s much excitement that the author will appear at the Auckland Writers Festival in May. Wyoming Paul reviews what may be a masterpiece. A year into the Civil War, a tormented President Lincoln visits his 11-year-old son’s crypt in the cemetery. He holds … Read more
We asked the distinguished Katherine Mansfield scholar Vincent O’Sullivan to comment on the recent attempt by Wellington’s mayor to repatriate the bones of Katherine Mansfield. I once heard of an artist whose partner believed her legal status, even in life, meant “owner under all circumstances.” As a widow, there was even more to own. Not … Read more
The week’s best-selling books at the best bookstores in the known world. WELLINGTON UNITY 1 Hit & Run: the New Zealand SAS in Afghanistan and the Meaning of Honour by Nicky Hager and Jon Stephenson (Potton & Burton, $35) “The allegations in Hit & Run are shocking on a human level, but the notion of … Read more
In which cartoonist Toby Morris draws a review of the best-selling Trump book, Insane Clown President. * * Insane Clown President by Matt Taibbi (Penguin, $40) is available at Unity Books.
Tim Grgec plucked up courage to submit his poetry to literary journals. But he didn’t know anyone in New Zealand writing and no one had ever heard of him. So then what? I used to think of New Zealand’s poetry scene as an exclusive club – a club constricted in living, with strict rules on how to … Read more
Nicky Hager is launching his latest book tonight at Unity Books in Wellington. No one knows what it’s called or what it’s about; join us as our correspondents keep a close eye on the author and the bookshop throughout the day. 7:37am: Nicky Hager is awake, and has walked into his kitchen for breakfast. He toasts a … Read more
He painted his body with blue paint to perform naked with The Plague, wrote “There is no Depression in New Zealand”, and is now a tender memoirist: an excerpt from the new book by the legendary Richard Von Sturmer. My earliest memories of my father have to do with water: My father and I are … Read more
The eternally awesome Karyn Hay delves into the story behind the story of her new novel, The March Of The Foxgloves. I feel I could easily write a book about the writing of this book. Several years of research went into this novel, and because I did it ‘as I went’ it inevitably interrupted the flow … Read more
A lawyer has run amok at the Auckland Art Gallery at the launch of the Auckland Writers Festival. The Spinoff Review of Books was there. A glass of red wine was spilled on a guest wearing an A-line Trelise Cooper pattern dress, quite ruining it, at tonight’s launch of the Auckland Writers Festival at the Auckland … Read more
Bucharest, Sofia, Edinburgh, Mt Roskill….An essay by traveler Garth Cartwright on another exile, Kapka Kassabova, on the occasion of her acclaimed new book. It’s December 1992 and I’ve just got off the bus from Bucharest, Romania, to Sofia, Bulgaria. Bucharest lay in ruins due to the late dictator Ceausescu’s vision of demolishing the historic city centre … Read more
Waiheke author Alex Stone on his new collection of stories, and the furious response one of them provoked at a writer’s group. After the usual shuffling of half a dozen bums settling on hard seats, the community hall goes quiet with expectation. A small writers’ group on our island home is ready to hear me read … Read more
An excerpt from The Special Patient, Auckland writer Aimee Inomata’s true story of how her partner was found not guilty of murder by reason of insanity and sentenced to seven years in a mental health unit. What happens, she asks, if your psychosis is substance-induced, a temporary insanity, and you have to live out your … Read more
Josh Hetherington takes a trip to the dark, battered heart of Appalachia in the pages of the international best-seller – and number one at the Unity Books chart – which offers “a unique and valuable insight into Trump’s America”. Hillbilly Elegy by JD Vance is a raw and visceral account of the life of a … Read more
Auckland writer Elspeth Sandys has published a new novel, and one of the themes is obsessive love. Please, we asked her, tell us the real-life story behind that… Being asked to write about one of your own novels is rather like being asked to take your clothes off in public. Because you know what you’re … Read more
Yet another Spinoff Review of Books exclusive as we break the 6:00am embargo by 60 seconds and present, as of 5:59am, the shortlist of the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards featuring Ashleigh Young. Ashleigh Young and some other writers have made it onto the shortlist of the 2017 Ockham New Zealand Book Awards. Young, 33, the … Read more
The week’s best-sellers at the two best stores in the Western world. AUCKLAND STORE 1 Hillbilly Elegy: A Memoir of a Family and Culture in Crisis (HarperCollins, $35) by JD Vance We will almost certainly run a review by former bFM deity Joshua Hetherington next week. 2 Lincoln in the Bardo (Bloomsbury, $33) by George Saunders The year’s … Read more
Steve Braunias conducts the live email interview – the revolutionary journalistic practise trailblazed by the Spinoff Review of Books – with author and academic Scott Hamilton to conclude our week-long series on Hamilton’s terrific new book The Stolen Island. Scott Hamilton is a literary outsider, a maverick, a public intellectual without much of a public … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books looks at Scott Hamilton’s brilliant new book, The Stolen Island, his investigation into the people-snatching raid on the Tongan island of ‘Ata. Today: Leilani Tamu writes, “When the slavers came, they took more than our men. They raped our women. Beat our children. Pissed on our ancestors. … Read more
All week this week the Spinoff Review of Books looks at Scott Hamilton’s brilliant new book, The Stolen Island, his investigation into the people-snatching raid on the Tongan island of ‘Ata. In this excerpt, he writes about visiting ‘Eua, the island where the survivors of the 1863 raid were re-settled; their descendants live in the … Read more
Somewhere in Auckland there’s an Irish recluse who wrote a novel, kept it in a drawer for 12 years, and only reluctantly showed it to Brett Cross from Auckland publisher Titus Books. Butades by TP Sweeney is about to be given worldwide distribution. I first heard about Butades through my wife, who worked with the wife of the … Read more
Win free things! In this case, books! No cost! Minimal effort! Huge rewards for your intellectual and emotional well-being! The Spinoff Review of Books in association with our favourite arts and culture quango, the New Zealand Book Council and their Aotearoa Summer Reads campaign, wishes to give away two prize packs of 10 extremely good … Read more
Late last year we asked Anthony Byrt to review a collection of essays by the great John Berger. The author died in January; the review is now a kind of tribute to a writer who was a massive influence on Geoff Dyer, Olivia Laing, and others. When John Berger died in January at age 90, … Read more