People from immigrant backgrounds often struggle to find work in New Zealand, despite their qualifications. So why is the Office of Ethnic Communities looking for people to do its work for free, asks former race relations commissioner Joris de Bres. Last week, the Office of Ethnic Communities announced on Facebook that it was launching a … Read more
With Bae Suah’s novels, two translators bend language to speak the unexplainable. When I was at primary school I was given a tiny doll in a match box. On the matchbox were printed the words Mon Ami. “It means ‘my friend’,” explained my next-door neighbour who was at high school and probably the coolest person … Read more
Sam Brooks reviews Before the Coffee Gets Cold – which Aucklanders, inexplicably, will not stop buying – and finds a book that sits oddly out of its native language and native form. For an extraordinary five weeks straight, a certain slim $20 novel has topped the Unity Auckland charts. That’s after making the Top 10 … Read more
Summer reissue: Tired of his tropes and infatuations, Michelle Langstone writes about her waning love for the writings of Japanese author Haruki Murakami. First published 29 July 2019. I left you behind with a note that said “Free to a good home. No longer wanted.” Blunt, perhaps, but that’s how it is when love runs … Read more
Tired of his tropes and infatuations, Michelle Langstone writes about her waning love for the writings of Japanese author Haruki Murakami. I left you behind with a note that said “Free to a good home. No longer wanted.” Blunt, perhaps, but that’s how it is when love runs out. There isn’t room for sensitivity when … Read more