NEW RELEASES (21.9.26)
All your choices are good! Click through to our website (or just email us) to secure your copies. We will dispatch your books by overnight courier or have them ready to collect from our door in Church Street, Whakatū.
U.X.O. by Brannavan Gnanalingam $30
An Indian soldier recounts to his young grandson in Aotearoa his time as a member of the Indian Peacekeeping Force in Jaffna, Sri Lanka during the Sri Lankan Civil War (1987-1990). As his narratives develop, the novel digs deeper into a very contemporary problem: what it means to be complicit in violence during wartime. As the book progresses, readers are confronted with the question of whether this is a grandfather’s stories for a curious grandson or an honest recounting of life during wartime? Or maybe it is a great confession, told in fragments? U.X.O. is a powerful investigation into the mind of an occupying soldier, and the extent to which people — through literature — can be held to account for war crimes, decades later in a country on the other side of the world. [Paperback]
“Brannavan Gnanalingam has become well known for gripping, occasionally gristly, writing about New Zealand society. From the first page U.X.O. he ups the stakes by writing about the Sri Lankan Civil War. And yet, somehow, the book is a page tuner.” —Murdoch Stephens
>>Other books by Brannavan Gnanalingam.
Pākehā Metaphysics by Murdoch Stephens $30
Perhaps best known for his work on refugee protection, Murdoch Stephens turns his mind inwards with a new book Pākehā Metaphysics. In this new book, he employs fresh introspective and speculative thought in a table turning attempt to better understand the unique identity of the Pākehā people. In turn, the book aims to revitalise some aspects of metaphysics which have been ignored with the rise of scientific explanations. These aspects include the relation between appearances and essences, the three omnis — omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience and whether metaphysics can be grounded in something other than universals or specific places. The book is structured around the old rhyme used to direct a bride’s comportment for a wedding: something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue. These four chapters both describe the implicit Pākehā metaphysics as they have come to exist while also gesturing at what direction Pākehā metaphysics should take for optimal existence. Not content to survey the past or dabble in futurism, the book also asks: How Pākehā can escape the metaphysical blues of the West? And, what, if anything, can Pākehā legitimately borrow from place-based and indigenous metaphysics? [Woodgrain paperback (each copy unique)]
"A witty and entertaining antidote to the navel-gazing angst of recent Pākehā accounts of living in Aotearoa. Stephens uses the decidedly unfashionable philosophical branch of metaphysics to re-cast how we all could think about how we engage with our place in this country." —Brannavan Gnanalingam
“What does it mean to be Pākehā? In a way, Stephens takes a very un-Pākehā approach to answering this question — by completely avoiding the placement of himself and his experiences at the centre of it. Instead, Pākehā Metaphysics is a refreshingly existential unpacking of Pākehā being. Incisive, funny, and somehow nihilistically hopeful, this is a welcome addition to Pākehā identity discourse.” —Tīhema Baker (Raukawa te Au ki te Tonga, Ātiawa ki Whakarongotai, Ngāti Toa Rangatira).
La Tarttoria: Intuitive Italian cooking by Dara Klein $85
Rustic southern Italian cooking inspired by la cucina povera of Puglia. Raised in the hustle and bustle of her parent's Italian restaurant, Dara Klein, the chef behind Tiella trattoria & bar, has been helping to build lasagne and stealing spoonfuls of tiramisu since early childhood. After her two-year stint as resident chef at London's famous Compton Arms pub, Dara returned to her home kitchen ready to distil a life of culinary experience into unfussy, honest recipes like Sugo di pomodoro (slow cooked tomatoes), Braised Ox Cheek and the perfect seasonal side salad. A natural teacher, Dara presents her kitchen know-how in the same way she trained her team of chefs to really interrogate how to build flavour into your cooking. You'll enjoy the process and learn how to cook instinctively, just like an Italian mamma. Featuring insights into life behind the scenes at London's buzziest eateries and the tips and tricks you can use to get exceptional quality food at home, La Trattoria is an indispensable guide to Italian cookery and an ode to family restaurants around the world. Dara Klein has a New Zealand connection: her childhood shaped by her family’s restaurant in Wellington, before heading to Melbourne and then London to cook. This is her story, her heritage, and in these pages she will teach you how to use all your senses to improve your cooking knowledge and bring to the table irrestistable eating delights. [Hardback]
>>Look inside!
>>Browse other cookbooks.
Sophie, Standing There by Meg Mason $38
Sophie Pattison is such a lovely person. Warm, kind, amazingly positive. She works as a freelance sound technician for literary festivals. She is a massive reader and was recently forced to moved house. She is bracingly lonely. But then, Sophie discovers an author through work, and comes to adore her. Her books, her interviews, podcasts, and wisdom and brilliance, her beautiful words. It's like, solace and company. It's almost like love. And Sophie would love to meet her, although she never will, obviously. The author would never come to her festival. She's too famous for that. Too brilliant, too beautiful. And in a way, thank goodness, because that would change everything. Sophie's entire life. But ... what if she did? From the author of Sorrow and Bliss. [Paperback]
'So smart, so funny, so moving — Mason has done it again, this time using behind the scenes of a literary festival to reveal the complexity of loneliness and how one woman attempts to dig herself out. I absolutely loved it.' —Bonnie Garmus
>>Can books save your life?
A Fortunate Man: The story of a country doctor by John Berger and Jean Mohr $28
In 1966 John Berger spent three months in the Forest of Dean shadowing an English country GP, John Sassall. Sassall is a fortunate man — his work occupies and fulfils him, he lives amongst the patients he treats, the line between his life and his work is happily blurred. In A Fortunate Man, Berger's text and the photography of Jean Mohr reveal with extraordinary intensity the life of a remarkable man. It is a portrait of one selfless individual and the rural community for which he became the hub. Drawing on psychology, biography and medicine A Fortunate Man is a portrait of sacrifice. It is also a profound exploration of what it means to be a doctor, to serve a community and to heal. With a new introduction by writer and GP, Gavin Francis. [Paperback]
”It's one of my favourite books in the world, an ongoing inspiration as to how books should be written (and photography used).” —Alain de Botton
”A genuine tour de force. The intimate portrait of one man and his microscopic world reveals the faults and strains of a whole society.” —Observer
”This extraordinary book unravels the tangled branches of the everyday to reveal the brightness within. It inspires me to think more slowly, more deeply, to wear acquired knowledge lightly, to open my senses more fully to the wonders in the plain and close-at-hand.” —James Meek
>>Look inside.
Mrs. Orwell by Andrea Chalupa and Brahm Revel $49
The Roaring Twenties are over, fascism is on the rise across Europe, and the dream of a workers' paradise is all but dead. But in the midst of these turbulent times, a love story unfolds — one that will forever reshape our political language and how we view the future. Mrs. Orwell follows poet Eileen Blair and her husband, George Orwell, as they forge the professional and romantic partnership that will eventually bring us Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. From a honeymoon fighting in the Spanish Civil War to narrow escapes from Stalin's agents and the London Blitz, the Blairs' campaign against fascism brings them face-to-face with some of the greatest threats of the 1930s. But while George struggles to make his voice heard despite political censorship, Eileen must fight to preserve her own voice within a marriage that threatens to consume her. This sweeping account of Eileen Blair's brief but dazzling life casts a light on a long-overlooked figure and her persistent defense of that most beloved, most vulnerable principle: the power of the pen. [Hardback]
"This energetic portrait brings to vivid life a critical influence on the work of Orwell — and the personal costs of activism." —Publisher's Weekly
>>Look inside.
>>Wifedom.
How to Resist Guilt: On what’s holding women back by Mona Chollet (translated from French by Emily Boyce) $39
A powerful exploration of self-blame, where it comes from, why women are prone to it, and what we can do about it. Many of us regularly hear a sarcastic, malevolent voice echoing in our heads, attacking us, lecturing us, putting us down. It tells us that whatever we do, we’re wrong. It says we’re worthless. We don’t deserve anything good. We’re fundamentally flawed. Our very existence is unjustified. It’s a voice that rings out particularly loudly if we’re women and belong to a minority group. In How to Resist Guilt, Mona Chollet shines a light on this enemy within. What exactly are these fears that have managed to enter the deepest recesses of our minds? How can they be identified? And, importantly, kept at bay? Exploring the guilt-tripping of women, especially mothers, the cult of work, which indexes our worth strictly in terms of our productivity, and the resurgence of mindsets intent on punishment or retribution, this is a powerful book about that little voice inside us and how to silence it. [Paperback]
Loneliness is a Molecule by Helena Fox $35
Miri was whole, once. She had a best friend, once. She knew who she was — or she thought she did. But now she is a million lonely molecules, flying through the air to a new life on the other side of the world. Rome is light and loud and cobblestones and gelaterias and ancient buildings next to modern ones. Rome is new people and a chance to get out of her head. Or is it into her head she needs to go, to find herself again? A poetic novel about friendship, family, forgiveness, trauma, love and happiness. [Paperback]
Portrait of an Unknown Woman by Camille de Peretti (translated from French by Hildegaard Serle) $38
Painted in Vienna in 1910, Gustav Klimt's 'Portrait of a Lady' was purchased by an anonymous collector in 1916, retouched by the master a year later, then stolen in 1997 before reappearing in the gardens of an Italian modern art museum in 2019. No art experts, museum curators, or police investigators actually know the identity of the young woman in the painting, nor the mysteries that surround the turbulent history of her portrait. From the streets of Vienna in 1900 to Texas in the 1980s, and from Manhattan during the Great Depression to contemporary Italy, de Peretti imagines the destiny of this young woman as well as that of her descendants, and creates a masterful fresco that intertwines family secrets, disappearances, and thwarted loves. [Paperback with french flaps]
"A remarkable melange of mystery and art crime malfeasance." —Financial Times
"A magnificent and unforgettable adventure." —Buzz Magazine
Against Identity: The wisdom of escaping the Self by Alexander Douglas $32
Modern life encourages us to pursue the perfect identity. Whether we aspire to become the best lawyer or charity worker, life partner or celebrity influencer, we emulate exemplars that exist in the world — hoping it will bring us happiness. But this often leads to a complex game of envy and pride. We achieve these identities but want others to imitate us. We disagree with those whose identities contradict ours — leading to polarisation and even violence. And yet when they thump against us, we are ashamed to ring hollow. In Against Identity, philosopher Alexander Douglas seeks an alternative wisdom. Searching the work of three thinkers — ancient Chinese philosopher Zhuangzi, Dutch Enlightenment thinker Benedict de Spinoza, and 20th Century French theorist René Girard — he explores how identity can be a spiritual violence that leads us away from truth. Through their worlds and radically different cultures, we discover how, at moments of historical rupture, our hunger for being grows: and yet, it is exactly these times when we should make peace with our indeterminacy and discover the freedom of escaping our selves. [Paperback]
”A profound meditation upon the way we perceive ourselves and the pits we frequently fall into, either as individuals or as groups, from the schoolyard to the nation state. Against Identity is revelatory, written with singular clarity and granite purpose, using little-known philosophies to think better and live with less turmoil, self-torture and aggression. In times of pessimism and chaos, it is a welcome voice of optimism and possibility.” —Richard Whatmore
”A philosophically rigorous yet impassioned critique of identity as both metaphysical error and social pathology. What the book offers is not an ethic of self-expression but a practice of disidentification: a way of letting go that is neither defeatist nor escapist, but attentive to the costs of identity and the possibilities that open up when we cease to grasp. Against Identity is generous, incisive, and quietly radical.” —Christine Tan
Aviarium by Dominic Couzens and Teagan White $60
Aviarium is a stunning showcase of the world of birds, in all their diverse glory. Fly high with gulls and terns, swoop and dive with swallows and flycatchers, go hunting with owls and eagles, swim with penguins and ducks, and take a stroll with kiwis and ostriches. Written by renowned bird expert and nature writer Dominic Couzens and breathtakingly illustrated by the artist Teagan White, Aviarium is a must-have gift for all bird lovers! [Large-format hardback]
>>Look inside!