NEW RELEASES (13.3.25)
These new books are keen to get onto your shelf. We can have them dispatched by overnight courier or ready to collect from our door in Church Street, Whakatū.
Tony Fomison: Life of the artist by Mark Forman $60
In a career spanning three decades, Tony Fomison (1939- 1990) produced some of Aotearoa's most artistically and culturally significant paintings and drawings, the backdrop of which was a life — inseparable from his art — of enduring intrigue. A man of multitudes and a self-perceived outsider, Fomison was a son, sibling and lover; activist, archaeologist and scholar; trickster, addict and disrupter; and — above all else — an artist who shed light on the human condition and reimagined life in Aotearoa. In this compelling biography, developed over more than a decade, Mark Forman draws on archival material and interviews with more than 150 people including Fomison's family and close friends, leading contemporary artists, political activists, and art professionals. The result is a comprehensive yet lively and accessible biography that reveals the man and his art to a new generation of readers. [Hardback]
”As a boy Tony had drawn maps and diagrams and medieval battle scenes. He' d read fairy tales and been enchanted by local sites of Maori history. As a young man he was a vagrant on the streets of Paris, was twice imprisoned, spent time in a mental hospital, battled destructive addictions, and experienced unrequited love and loneliness. All of this would become the underworld of his art, the subterranean realm where he could dwell so as to create work that expressed something of the human condition. But it was always far wider than just his own story. Endlessly curious about Pacific and Maori history and art, and enchanted by European Renaissance art, he wanted to find a new visual language for what it meant to live in the Pacific; he wanted to make room at the back of our heads.” —from the author’s introduction
”I had been convinced that someone who had not known Tony personally, who was not party to the secret painting cultures of that time, was not the right person to write Tony’s life. I was quite wrong . . . Mark Forman’s understanding of Tony’s painting is profound and insightful, and his research is remarkable, as he recovers the memories of the survivors of the art scenes that Tony was part of with intelligence and sensitivity. You get a window that opens onto an Aotearoa rarely glimpsed. Yes, the interviews are telling, but Mark keeps his focus on Tony’s paintings: Tony’s pursuit of the exact technique to express his passionate hunger for transcendence through seeing. That way Tony could find redemption. Best image? Shirley Grace’s ‘Tony at Williamson Ave’. Brilliant. The first image, the all-too-human Tony, magicking himself into a best-version Tony, the role he so aspires to, the Tagaloa of the visually inspired.” —Jacqueline Fahey, artist and friend of the artist
You Are Here by Whiti Hereaka and Peata Larkin $45
Jan Medlicott Acorn Fiction Prize winner Whiti Hereaka and the artist Peata Larkin, cousins who share the same whakapapa, collaborate in a project based on the Fibonacci number sequence. In a feat of managed imagining, Hereaka's words spiral out to the centre of the book and then back in on themselves to end with the same words with which the text began. As the pattern spools out and then folds back, Peata Larkin's meticulous drawings of tāniko and whakairo and her lush works on silk weave their own entrancing pattern. 'It is my hope that by the time you have walked that path that you are now a different reader and will read those words in a new way,' Hereaka says. You Are Here is a beguiling and important addition to the ‘kōrero’ series. [Hardback]
Under the Eye of the Big Bird by Hiromi Kawakami (translated from Japanese by Asa Yoneda) $37
In the distant future, humans are on the verge of extinction and have settled in small tribes across the planet under the observation and care of the Mothers. Some children are made in factories, from cells of rabbits and dolphins; some live by getting nutrients from water and light, like plants. The survival of the species depends on the interbreeding of these and other alien beings — but it is far from certain that connection, love, reproduction, and evolution will persist among the inhabitants of this faltering new world. Unfolding over geological eons, Under the Eye of the Big Bird is at once an astonishing vision of the end of our species as we know it and a meditation on the qualities that, for better and worse, make us human. [Paperback]
”Haunting. Less experimental fiction and more fiction on the human experiment — what kinds of new approaches to mating, community and family will allow people to survive? Kawakami finds humour and warmth in the puzzles of existence and extinction." -Hilary Leichter, The New York Times Book Review
"An accomplished mosaic novel spanning thousands of years, it investigates change on the grandest scale: the evolutionary fate of humanity. The power and the pain of the novel lies in its ability to bridge between humanity as an abstract and humanity as a characteristic, to pick out moments from a vast sweep of time and show their insignificance and their simultaneous, ultimate importance. The novel ends with a plea from a speaker who doesn't know if they will ever be heard: I wanted to reach back into the page and say, you are." —Niall Harrison, Locus Magazine
Perfection by Vincenzo Latronico (translated from Italian by Sophie Hughes) $40
Anna and Tom, an expat couple, have fashioned a dream life for themselves in Berlin. They are young digital "creatives" exploring the excitements of the city, freelancers without too many constraints, who spend their free time cultivating house plants and their images online. At first, they reasonably deduce that they've turned their passion for aesthetics into a viable, even enviable career, but the years go by, and Anna and Tom grow bored. As their friends move back home or move on, so their own work and sex life — and the life of Berlin itself — begin to lose their luster. An attempt to put their politics into action fizzles in embarrassed self-doubt. Edging closer to forty, they try living as digital nomads only to discover that, wherever they go, "the brand of oat milk in their flat whites was the same." Perfection — Vincenzo Latronico's first book to be translated into English — is a scathing novel about contemporary existence, a tale of two people gradually waking up to find themselves in various traps, wondering how it all came to be. Was it a lack of foresight, or were they just born too late? [Paperback with French flaps]
”Perfection gave me the gift of being able to hold a long span of time — in a relationship, in a city — and the experience of being young, and the experience of being not so young — all in my head at once. I could hold it there the way you hold a parable or fable, but with all these tiny details, too. It also functioned like a kind of murder mystery: what slowly killed the magic? Was it their values, was it aging, was it... was it...? It's such a beautiful, thoughtful, impeccably crafted book.” —Sheila Heti
On a Woman’s Madness by Astrid Roemer (translated from Dutch by Lucy Scott) $43
Noenka is a courageous Black woman trying to live a life of her own choosing. When her abusive husband of just nine days refuses her request for divorce, Noenka flees her hometown in Suriname, on South America's tropical northeastern coast, for the capital city of Paramaribo. Unsettled and unsupported, her life in this new place is illuminated by romance and new freedoms, but also forever haunted by her past and society's expectations. Newly translated by Lucy Scott, Astrid Roemer's classic queer novel is a tentpole of European and post-colonial literature. And amid tales of plantation-dwelling snakes, rare orchids, and star-crossed lovers, it is also a blistering meditation on the cruelties we inflict on those who disobey. Roemer, the first Surinamese winner of the prestigious Dutch Literature Prize, carves out postcolonial Suriname in barbed, resonant fragments. [Paperback]
”A modern classic set in Suriname and lyrically rendered into English for the first time, On a Woman’s Madness is a testament to both the resilience of queer lives that exist everywhere and everytime and the alchemy of literary translation where a perfect book meets its perfect translator. Through its heightened understanding of character and history filtered through a lush and enriched language, Astrid Roemer draws from suffering, heat, and imprisonment to create a story of love, survival, and freedom that translator Lucy Scott expertly reweaves into English with an empathetic, artistically accomplished touch.” —International Booker judges’ citation
Clay Eaters by Gregory Kan $30
Clay Eaters traverses a network of fault lines diverging and converging at unexpected angles: a mysterious jungle island, military reconnaissance training, the spirits in the trees and abandoned temples, old family homes, the echoes across rooms, the dining table set for the archetypal feast. Here the author asks what it means to write the self, and what it is the living must carry. [Paperback]
”Kan is a sophisticated and accomplished poet and he creates a unique tone in his poems, using simple language in a sort of alchemy to make emotional depth. The poems come together to create a feeling of an unhurried, loving and honest gaze at his family, himself and his world. Clay Eaters is an original and significant collection.” —Lynn Jenner
Hunchback by Saou Ichikawa (translated from Japanese by Polly Barton) $35
Born with a congenital muscle disorder, Shaka Isawa has severe spine curvature and uses an electric wheelchair and ventilator. Within the limits of her care home, her life is lived online: she studies, she tweets indignantly, she posts outrageous stories on an erotica website. One day, a new male carer reveals he has read it all — the sex, the provocation, the dirt. Her response? An indecent proposal... Written by the first disabled author to win Japan's most prestigious literary award and acclaimed instantly as one of the most important Japanese novels of the 21st century, Hunchback is an extraordinary, thrilling glimpse into the desire and darkness of a woman placed at humanity's edge. [Paperback with French flaps]
”Filled with unforgettable insight.” —Sayaka Murata
”Written with guts and wit, Hunchback is a tender and defiant story which forces readers to think far beyond ableist concepts of who gets to desire and be desired.” —AnOther Magazine
”Uproariously funny, unflinching, and merciless. It's not very often you encounter this provocative and yet so refreshingly honest a read.” —Mariana Enriquez
Makeshift Seasons by Kate Camp $25
The failings of the body
can be a form of company
a trapped nerve ringing in the night
like music.
Kate Camp's poetry has been described by readers as fearless, affable, and containing a surprising radicalism and power. In her new collection, she is ever alert to the stories unfolding all around us and inside our own bodies. As she is striding away from hope, she is also holding on tightly to the promise of morning. The poems move between distant planets and Chappies Dairy, between Mont-Saint-Michel and the lighthouse in Island Bay, with every moment, every feeling, every conviction on the edge of becoming another. Like the plumber who can hear water running deep underground, Makeshift Seasons is a book of extraordinarily sharp sensing and knowing. [Paperback]
”These magical, knotty works react to a fragile world, and Camp navigates the light along with the dark.” —Paula Green
”Each poem’s like a bumper ride in a fairground, crashing into obstacles, at once jarring and exhilarating.” —David Eggleton
”Here is ‘the so-called outside world’, and here is its wonderfully sensitive, fluently understated poet.” —Stephanie Burt
Pātaka Kai: Growing food sovereignty by Jessica Hutchings, Jo Smith, Johnson Witehira and Yvonne Taura $45
We face a biodiversity crisis and a climate meltdown. Our food systems are broken, our soils are depleted and our seeds are owned by global corporations. Colonial capitalism dictates the mainstream response to these crises, drowning out Indigenous perspectives and solutions, yet Indigenous practices and understandings of kai (food) offer important pathways to ensuring ecological, cultural and socio-economic sustainability as well as greater connection to kai in our everyday lives. This book salutes Indigenous food heroes from across Aotearoa and neighbouring islands in Te Moana-nui-a-Kiwa who take a holistic approach that considers the interconnectedness of people, land and food. Their inspiring stories show how change begins locally and on a small scale. Written by verified hua parakore farmers, activists, Indigenous researchers and Indigenous food sovereignty leaders Jessica Hutchings and Jo Smith, Pataka Kai encourages a return to Indigenous values and practices to achieve kai sovereignty and well-being. [Flexibound]
A Training School for Elephants by Sophy Roberts $40
From the author of The Lost Pianos of Siberia comes a new book tracing the contexts and implications of a forgotten colonial folly in the Congo. In 1879, King Leopold II of Belgium launched an ambitious plan to plunder Africa's resources. The key to cracking open the continent, or so he thought, was its elephants — if only he could train them. And so he commissioned the charismatic Irish adventurer Frederick Carter to ship four tamed Asian elephants from India to the East African coast, where they were marched inland towards Congo. The ultimate aim was to establish a training school for African elephants. Following in the footsteps of the four elephants, Roberts pieces together the story of this long-forgotten expedition, in travels that take her to Belgium, Iraq, India, Tanzania and Congo. The storytelling brings to life a compelling cast of historic characters and modern voices, from ivory dealers to Catholic nuns, set against rich descriptions of the landscapes travelled. She digs deep into historic records to reckon with our broken relationship with animals, revealing an extraordinary — and enduring — story of colonial greed, ineptitude, hypocrisy and folly. [Paperback]
”History and travelogue combine wonderfully in this tale of colonial plunder and hubris. Sophy Roberts' luminous new book is a journey through Africa from Zanzibar to Lake Tanganyika and back, retracing the steps of a long-forgotten expedition. Reflective, watchful, calm, Roberts is such a vivid travel writer that you forget what a brilliant historian she is. She has the water-diviner's gift for stories in unlikely places.” —Guardian
over under fed by Amy Marguerite $25
perhaps the good things
that come to those who wait
are the leftovers
of those who have
already waited.
In her debut collection, Amy Marguerite explores the peculiar loveliness and specific loneliness of the human condition. Writing from experiences with anorexia nervosa, limerence and a particularly tumultuous situationship, these poems act as a confessional to hunger, desire and immoderation. Precise, vivid and sometimes disturbing in detail, over under fed seeks to reconcile chaos and recovery. [Paperback]
”Amy Marguerite has a completely original voice and sensibility that makes everything she writes extraordinary and compelling. This is a collection as much about desire, requited and unrequited love, and other forms of relationships — especially relationships with women — as it is about the hunger to live fully and beautifully, the hunger for beauty and intensity, the hunger for a charged, combustible life of dreams and elation.” —Anna Jackson
”In this stunning debut collection from Amy Marguerite, we are taken on an ever-dizzying but always dazzling journey of obsession and love and obsessive love that guides us through a landscape of pain, dysphoria, eating disorders, trauma, mental health and hope, with the compelling, compassionate and incisive insight of someone who has struggled in the webs of their ghosts and is weaving anew. These poems dare you to enter into the spirals and not be changed, slowly but certainly finding solace in the flux. With a masterful use of repetition, an eloquently distressed and elegantly restrained lyricism, over under fed explores the spirals of the mind in a knowing chaos of the body, asking us how we might map our way through perpetually falling as we yearn to be caught and seek to fly.” —Amber Esau
The Futures of Democracy, Law, and Government by Geoffrey Palmer et al, edited by Mark Hickford and Matthew S.R. Palmer $70
A stock-take of increasingly urgent issues underlying our collective life in Aotearoa in the form of essays by leading judges, scholars, and politicians on constitutional government; democracy and its integrity; indigenous-state relations and Te Tiriti o Waitangi/The Treaty of Waitangi; the environment and climate change; law reform and human rights. The papers were originally presented at a conference in honour of Geoffrey Palmer, and reflect the themes that have animated his career in public affairs. Contents include: ‘Law, politics, policy and government’ by Geoffrey Palmer; ‘Some reflections on Cabinet government: A former minister’s perspective’ by David Caygill; ‘The role of political parties in New Zealand’s democracy’ by Margaret Wilson; ‘Safeguarding democracy through prudent anticipatory governance: the case of climate change adaptation’ by Jonathan Boston; ‘Governing an unimaginable future’ by Simon Upton; ‘Legal myth-takes and the Crown’s claim to sovereignty over Aotearoa New Zealand: The implications for New Zealand’s constitution’ by Claire Charters; ‘Ultimate legal principles for Aotearoa New Zealand: The place of the Treaty of Waitangi’ by Alex Frame; ‘Constitutional legitimacy and diversity: The value of pluralism and filling gaps in the common law’ by Mai Chen; ‘Back to the future: Sir Geoffrey Palmer’s 'new public law'‘ by Dean Knight; ‘Legal change: 'reform', 'legality' and the (once?) 'political constitution'‘ by Jack Hodder; ‘The rights frame of mind’ by Helen Winkelmann; ‘Bills of rights: “Nonsense upon stilts” or an enhancement of democracy?’ by Kenneth Keith; ‘Some lessons for governance in New Zealand drawn from the global context’ by Colin Keating; ‘Normative mismatch and the failure of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change’ by Jonathan Carlson. [Hardback]
Toitū te Whenua: People and places of the New Zealand Wars by Lauren Keenan $45
An accessible guide to significant places and people of the New Zealand Wars from a Māori perspective. This comprehensive guidebook journeys through the pivotal sites of the New Zealand Wars, from the Far North to Wellington, offering a unique perspective on events that shaped Aotearoa. Lauren Keenan (Te Ātiawa ki Taranaki) brings to life the key battles, influential figures, and significant locations on an essential chapter in this country's past. Complete with detailed maps and easy-to-follow driving directions, Toitū te Whenua- Places and People of the New Zealand Wars is the perfect companion for exploring these historic sites. As the only guide of its kind written from a Māori viewpoint, it is an invaluable resource for anyone looking to deepen their understanding of New Zealand's colonial history. [Paperback]
Clay: A human history by Jennifer Lucy Allan $60
People have been taking handfuls of earth and forming them into their own image since human history began. Human forms are found everywhere there was a ceramic tradition, and there is a ceramic tradition everywhere there was human activity. The clay these figures are made from was formed in deep geological time. It is the material that God, cast as the potter, uses to form Adam in Genesis. Tomb paintings in Egypt show the god Khum at a potter's wheel, throwing a human. Humans first recorded our own history on clay tablets, the shape of the characters influenced by the clay itself. The first love poem was inscribed in a clay tablet, from a Sumerian bride to her king more than 4000 years ago. Born out of a desire to know and understand the mysteries of this material, the spiritual and practical applications of clay in both its micro and macro histories, Clay: A Human History is a book of wonder and insight, a hybrid of archaeology, history and lived experience as an amateur potter. [Hardback]
“I read this book and immediately went out to buy some clay. Fascinating and powerful.” —Brian Eno
”I thought I knew a lot about pottery, but I didn't, not as much as I do now. From the earliest earthenware to the history of porcelain, along with the author's own progress working with different clays and glazes, I have loved learning from every chapter in this beautiful and affecting book.” —Vashti Bunyan
A Atlas of Endangered Alphabets: Writing systems on the verge of vanishing by Tim Brookes $70
If something is important, we write it down. Yet 85% of the world's writing systems are on the verge of vanishing — not granted official status, not taught in schools, discouraged and dismissed. When a culture is forced to abandon its traditional script, everything it has written for hundreds of years — sacred texts, poems, personal correspondence, legal documents, the collective experience, wisdom and identity of a people — is lost. This Atlas is about those writing systems, and the people who are trying to save them. From the ancient holy alphabets of the Middle East, now used only by tiny sects, to newly created African alphabets designed to keep cultural traditions alive in the twenty-first century: from a Sudanese script based on the ownership marks traditionally branded into camels, to a secret system used in one corner of China exclusively by women to record the songs and stories of their inner selves: this unique book profiles dozens of scripts and the cultures they encapsulate, offering glimpses of worlds unknown to us — and ways of saving them from vanishing entirely. [Hardback]