NEW RELEASES (13.8.26)

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kluge by pip adam $38
If you and I are in the same =‘entertainment venue’ for this =‘stand-up comedy special’ and I am =‘my body’ and you are =‘my audience’ I run to you and shout your name into the dark, in the hope you are there. Yes, you =‘dear reader’ =‘attentive listener’. This is a story about the end days of a tech company and its all-powerful owner, told in the style of a stand-up comedy special. Prophetic, propulsive and absurdly entertaining, kluge is a workplace satire about artificial intelligence and the value of a body. [Paperback (published in 4 differently coloured covers)]
”An audacious, dazzling masterpiece. I love you, pip adam, put me on a leash and drag me to Hell.” —Hera Lindsay Bird
”Utterly unmooring. A work of outrageous genius.” —Jordy Rosenberg, author of Night Night Fawn
”Meticulously crafted. A mind-bending and chilling artefact.” —Kerry Donovan Brown, author of Lamplighter
>>I run to you and shout your name in the dark.
>>Writing in three dimensions.
>>Keeping faith in the project.
>>What it means to be inhuman.

Zombie Proust by Jérôme Prieur (translated from French by Nancy Kline) $40
“Marcel Proust passed away on the 18th of November. It was 1922. One day, I could no longer resist: I went in search of him. I prowled about, I visited the rooms where he had lived, I caught glimpses of abandoned châteaus and haunted places, I walked in his footsteps. I wanted to see what his eyes had seen. I looked at his photographs, I uncovered relics and little treasures. I tried to find out who he had been in life, what he had really been like. I interrogated those among the dead who could still reply: his friends, his confidants, those who had crossed paths with him. Who was he? The dandy who set out for salons as though on a foreign expedition? Or the invisible man who flinched from the light, the character in a thriller? The brilliant writer was concealing a doppelgänger, and I pursued him as though tracking down a missing relative.” — Jérôme Prieur
What is a writer’s life, and above all, what is left of it? This book is not a biography, but a quest; an expedition to unearth what remains of the author of Remembrance of Things Past. What was it like to be in his remarkable presence? What was it like to be inside his skin — especially during his final years of intense reclusive absorption in the writing of his great book? Haunted places and abandoned sets, rare photographs, tinpot relics, half-erased fingerprints, flashes of light, piles of little memories serve as talismans through which Jérôme Prieur materialises the eponymous writer’s body and spirit in short, vivid chapters which resemble prose poems. Rich in detail, wry humour and quirky erudition, Zombie Proust brings back to life the invisible being, recalling his image as one summons a ghost.
“Prieur has succeeded magnificently in bringing his portrait of Proust to life.” —Le Monde
“Prieur explores places, questions traces, lingers on moments of Proust's life, sentences from In Search of Lost Time, images - again and again - like those words, haloed in mystery, which open wide the doors of imagination.” —Télérama
Every page is shot through with the feeling of overwhelming, enthusiastic, affectionate gratitude that readers of In Search of Lost Time feel for Proust the writer and Proust the man.” —Le Matricule des anges
“Scarcely any other book on Proust evades with such effortless skill the classic dilemma of whether to relate everything to the work or to the man. Prieur resurrects them both as a single phantom, in the night time favoured by Proust, perfectly conjuring up scents and tastes, with a love which owes nothing to neurosis.”
—Journal du Dimanche
>>Possessing other eyes.
>>Allure and menace.

Twilight in Musashino by Seichō Matsumoto (translated from Japanese by Jesse Kirkwood) $40
Musashino, 1959. A young Japanese flight attendant is found strangled on the icy banks of the river. The police suspect foul play — but the deeper they dig, the more they collide with a wall of silence. At the centre of it all stands a foreign priest and the Guglielmo Church, a charitable Christian mission. The dead woman's connection to the church is undeniable. But what begins as a routine investigation quickly turns into something far more treacherous, entangling together narcotics, post-war relief schemes and the delicate web of international diplomacy. As the story moves from back alleys to diplomatic sanctuaries, following the twists and turns of Detective Fujisawa's investigation, Seichō Matsumoto masterfully constructs a slow-burning procedural where truth is clear but justice is not permitted. [Paperback with French flaps]
”Seichō Matsumoto's books are packed with lean prose and twists yet they're also educational. If you want to understand Japan, Matsumoto is a disquieting place to start.” —Tim Stanley

Weimar: Life on the edge of catatrophe by Katja Hoyer $75
Weimar looms large in German history — a crucible of democracy and dictatorship. This ancient town nestled in the heart of the country was home to some of Europe's greatest thinkers, Goethe and Schiller, Liszt and Nietzsche among them. It gave its name to the ambitious Weimar Republic crafted in the aftermath of the First World War. But it was also where fascism took hold. Where Bauhaus architects first experimented with new ways of living, Buchenwald was dug out of a beech forest. Weimar shows us a town and its people on the edge of catastrophe. Drawing on a wealth of new archival research, acclaimed historian Katja Hoyer takes us from 1919 to 1939 as she tells the stories of the men and women who lived through the new republic and Hitler's regime. We encounter cast of characters, from bookbinder Carl Weirich and hotel owners Rosa and Arthur Schmidt, to Friedrich Nietzsche's sister Elisabeth. Here are fascists and socialists, artists and workers, politicians and citizens, who, as the events of history swept them up, became witnesses, perpetrators, victims and bystanders. [Hardback]
”A leading historian offers the definitive account of Weimar, a city that is central to Germany's literary tradition — as well as to the darker chapters of its history.” —New Statesman
”Most histories of interwar Germany focus on Berlin (sleaze, cabarets, expressionist art) or Munich (beer, Nazis in lederhosen), so it's clever to tell the ill-starred story of the Weimar Republic through the 35,000-strong town of Weimar itself, home to Goethe and so many parks. Katja Hoyer weaves her story using the lives of various locals — book-keepers, hoteliers, party activists — to show what it was like to live on ‘the edge of catastrophe’ and show why so many Germans succumbed to Nazi fever.” —The Times
”There has been a renewed uptick in books about the Weimar Republic, with many observers worrying about possible contemporary parallels. Historian Hoyer opts for a different tack, going to the picturesque Thuringian town that gave its name to Germany's first ill-fated experiment with democracy to explore, via a collection of individuals, how the home to many of Europe's cultural giants became an early Nazi stronghold.” —Financial Times
”Hoyer's book confronts us with troubling ambiguities. Understanding why ordinary, even likeable, people turned away from democracy is, she argues, essential to safeguarding freedom. That task could scarcely be more urgent.” —Guardian

It Gets In Your Blood: Lives of a racecourse by Marty Smith $40
It Gets In Your Blood is a work of memoir and portraiture that takes the reader deep into the life of a racecourse community. 'Come for a ride with me, and see what I see, down in the dirt and sweat and horseshit, right in the belly of the work of a racing stable. These are my real people, and this is the life I would lead if I hadn't been looking out for my father, a child of the Depression. Be a teacher, he said, or a nurse, people always want those people. I only just started riding work when he was lying in a coma; could I tell him how much I would love to be a jockey? I could not.' —Marty Smith. In 2015, having always loved horses and riding, Marty Smith set out to immerse herself in the world of thoroughbred horse racing — to 'talk to people at every level' and spend time in the stables and training grounds of the Hawke's Bay racecourse. The project is as much about the people as the horses, and it turns out to be harder — and more surprising, funny and drawn-out — than she'd ever expected. She's not the kind of person who can write a book in a year: this book took ten, and in the process became a portrait of people and an industry as they changed over time. Across that decade, as people in the stables get to know and trust her, the many lives of the racecourse began to open up. This is a life of hard work and constant risk, as well as community and love. And horses. [Paperback]
>>Read Stella’s review.
>>Listen to Stella’s radio review.

Ngā Kākahu Māori o Mua by Hirini Moko Mead $65
Starting with identifying the range of garments present during the Classical Period of Māori traditional clothing (1769–1800), their function and the ways they were made, this book then explores how clothing of Māori has changed in style, function and construction. Hirini Moko Mead makes a detailed analysis of the materials used, construction techniques, patterns, garments produced and the ways they have changed over time. The text is accompanied by photographs and illustrations of feather cloaks, dogskin cloaks, piupiu, rain capes and many other garments as well as details of the decoration and methods of making. This is an authoritative exploration of Māori traditional clothing and its evolutions from 1769 to the 1960s and is accessible for a general readership. [Paperback]
>>Look inside!

I Hear a New World (‘Long London’ #2) by Alan Moore $38
It's 1958. A time of Rock and Roll, of protest, riot and change... and London is full of danger. Dennis Knuckleyard is finally growing up, and above all he wants to leave the Great When in the past. For nine years, he's avoided so much as thinking about the magical shadow version of London, managing even to palm off what should've been his last souvenir of that experience — an iron key he secretly brought back. But while Dennis may believe he's done with the Great When, it's not done with him. The unsuspecting rube now in possession of the key has discovered its magical properties, bringing forth mythic, occult beings into Dennis's London and sparking riots in the capital. Worse still, Dennis hears his first love Grace has returned to the Great When to investigate strange happenings in both cities. Desperate to keep Grace safe and return London to normal, Dennis follows her back into the hidden city. But once it has him back, The Great When will not let him go away again so easily. He and Grace must fight to set things right or forever lose everything. [Paperback]
'Extraordinary.' —Susanna Clarke
'A breathless time-travelling classic. Savage, humane, comic, terrifying.' —Iain Sinclair
>>Read The Great When first.

Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and choices for New Zealand edited by Peter Davis $35
New Zealand's traditional “she'll be right” optimism is no longer adequate to the challenges facing the country. Facing Up to Our Future: Challenges and Choices for New Zealand brings together 21 of the country's leading thinkers to confront the long-term pressures shaping the nation's next decades. Edited by Emeritus Professor Peter Davis, the collection ranges widely, covering issues as diverse as climate change and the energy transition, demographics, the cost of living, housing and home ownership, health, environmental decline, fiscal sustainability, infrastructure, transparency and democracy, race relations and the Crown–Māori relationship, and the future of Pacific communities in Aotearoa. Its central argument is that these are not passing storms to be ridden out on the country's traditional “she'll be right” optimism, but decades-long structural challenges that no single government can solve alone. Our different governments are failing to take effective action on the long-term economic, social, governance and environmental challenges New Zealand faces. In this book some of our best policy thinkers offer options for practical, feasible and longer-view solutions.  Tackling the challenges our nation faces is vital for a better future.
Structured around the four themes of Economy and Wellbeing, Society and Culture, Governance and Government, and Environment and Place, the book moves beyond diagnosis to an equally broad slate of practical reforms. Its contributors propose, among much else, a cross-party housing accord, an independent fiscal watchdog, a Parliamentary Commissioner for Future Generations, a broader tax base, binding environmental limits, stronger competition and lobbying rules, a simpler welfare system, sustainable funding for public-interest journalism, and a renewed commitment to multilateralism and Pacific climate leadership. With forewords by the Rt Hon Helen Clark and Professor Toeolesulusulu Damon Salesa, it sets out the kind of evidence-based, long-term policymaking New Zealand needs — solutions built on collaboration and consensus that endure beyond any single electoral cycle. Contributors: Matt Nolan, Toby Moore, Tim Maloney, Jon Duffy, Michael Johnston, Peter Davis, Jonathan Boston, Robin Gauld, Dylan Mordaunt, Stuart McNaughton, Peter A. Thompson, Jemaima Tiatia-Siau, Seiuli Angel Timali Tiatia-Siau, Chris Finlayson KC, Morgan Godfery, Philippa Yasbek, Lucy Cassels, Greg Severinsen, Rod Carr, Kali Mercier, and Mark Thomas [Paperback]

The Witch in the Tower by Júlia Sardà $30
Carmela's older sister, Franca, has stopped playing with her and she cannot help but feel sad and left out. No one can make her feel better, not even her little sister. So she decides to play a game: she will walk until she can’t anymore and then ... she will walk a little more. Carmela suddenly arrives at a strange tower where she meets a witch who, it seems, has been waiting for Carmela all this time. She welcomes Carmela into a world far beyond the limits of her imagination, where Carmela visits libraries teeming with ancient books; rooms where worms and spiders weave intricate dresses; a wonderful dome of crystal prisms and, finally, Carmela takes flight — her worries shrinking, her mind expanding. Carmela discovers a magic and power within herself – to see beyond the hurt and pain of growing up, to find her own place in the world. [Hardback]
”Sarda's intricate artwork reflects Carmela's inner journey as much as her outer one, truly letting loose as Carmela gleefully unlocks her own free-spirited magic. A wild rumpus of sorts and a love letter to the outcasts, ‘the lonely, the lost, and the different ones’ — and that is a beautiful, empowering thing. —Booklist
”Sarda has struck gold. Both narrative and aesthetic ooze style, coolly occupying the intersection between cautionary folktale and coming-of-age fantasy epic. The result is singular, not merely a modern classic but one for the ages. Utterly spellbinding.” —Kirkus Reviews
>>Look inside!

Griefdogg by Michael Winkler $40
Meet Jeffrey Watson-Johnson hydrologist, husband of Martine, father of Bern, model citizen of Mildura. But after he inherits a small fortune from an obscure aunt and has a disconcerting encounter with his cousin Pam, Jeffrey decides it's time to change everything. He tells Martine he wants to live as if he were the family pet. Sleeping through the day or wandering beside the river, he discovers a new power — he can sense secret grief in others. What to do with this gift? Or with his awareness of the endless streams of water flowing unseen beneath the earth? [Paperback]
”Reading Greifdogg us like running close along a wall Winkler has built — is still building up ahead — water seeping from between the stones. There’s a pit in the centre of the book that we circle, and a serene view off in the distance. An impressive book about connection, being, and dissolution.” —Jen Calleja
>>Life as confidence trick.
>>Start late, avoid late style.

Peacock by James Hynes $38
A second volume of Hynes’s historical epic set in the last days of a dying Roman empire. Sparrow has flown from the confines of the Roman brothel where he was raised. Now older and smarter, and having learned the arts of deception and enticement from the women who raised him, he vies to become a player in the internal politics at Arcadia, the home of his new master, a man who is himself playing with political fire. Sparrow soon realizes that the key to survival in this turbulent place is information, and he must gather it at any cost. As the dangers mount for Sparrow, he is forced to choose where his loyalties lie and which of these powerful Romans is most likely to ensure his survival. [Paperback]
”Utterly engrossing, vivid, and honest, this coming of age story reaches across millennia to grab us by the throat.” —Emma Donoghue
”A bleak and brutal story, vividly told by Hynes, who has created a truly unforgettable character in the resilient Sparrow.” —Daily Mail 
”A stunning work of historical imagination, masterful in its portrayal of love, sex and friendship.” —The Observer
”Sparrow feels like an entirely authentic portrait — James Hynes renders this hidden world so powerfully and vividly.” —The Times
>>Sparrow.