NEW RELEASES (9.8.24)
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Whaea Blue by Talia Marshall $40
Polly and Wiki and all the other kuia ride on the roof of Kerry’s Toyota Corona with its navy blistered bonnet. They do this for all the moko; they are everywhere and roam inside us as they keep weaving the net and it’s no small thing that only a few slip through. Time and whakapapa slowly unravel as Talia Marshall weaves her way across Aotearoa in a roster of decaying European cars. Along the way she will meet her father, pick up a ghost, transform into a wharenui, and make cocktail hour with Ans Westra. Men will come — Roman, Ben, Isaac — and some go. Others linger. And it is these men — her father, Paul, and grandfathers Mugwi Macdonald and Jim; her tīpuna Nicola Sciascia, tohunga Kipa Hemi Whiro, Kupe himself — who she observes as she moves backwards into the future. With her ancestor Tūtepourangi she relives Te Rauparaha’s bloody legacy, and attempts and fails to write her great historical novel. But it is her wāhine, past and present, who carry her, even as the ground behind her smoulders. Tempestuous and haunting, Whaea Blue is a tribute to collective memory, the elasticity of self, and the women we travel through. It is a karanga to and from the abyss. It is a journey to peace.
”This is a wild road trip, frightening and funny. You can taste all the food, see all the ghosts, hear the ancestors. It’s a masterclass in honesty. It’s one for the wāhine. Through Marshall’s extraordinary storytelling I saw and laughed with the people she loves, and cried for those she wished had stayed.” —Becky Manawatu
”Whaea Blue is a fiercely original memoir with a fresh Māori perspective, scanning the record of inter-iwi hatreds, curses, war, and colonial aftershocks. In the process, she crafts a complex personal relationship to Māori identity. No one is spared in this droll, lyrical memoir, least of all the author herself. Marshall dives fearlessly into the darkest topics – pain, loss, abandonment, violence, death, madness, war — and comes up with a testament you won’t forget.” —John Dolan
”Marshall’s whirlwind prose effortlessly slams the reader with neck-snapping speed from laughter to sorrow to recognition to disbelief and then back again. An uncommonly good debut by an author who is as original as she is undeniable.” —Victor Rodger
Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking by Han Smith $40
The almost daughter is almost normal, because she knows how to know and also not know. She knows and does not know, for instance, about the barracks by the athletics field, and about the lonely woman she visits each week. She knows — almost — about ghosts, and their ghosts, and she knows not to have questions about them. She knows to focus on being a woman: on training her body and dreaming only of escape. Then, the almost daughter meets Oksana. Oksana is not even almost normal, and the questions she has are not normal at all. Portraits at the Palace of Creativity and Wrecking is the story of a young woman coming of age in a town reckoning with its brutal past, for readers of Milkman and A Girl is a Half-Formed Thing.
“Eloquently oblique and profoundly empathetic, dredging up meanings from under the river that runs over undesired histories. Han Smith slides round the side of the unsayable by turning language over to its silver side.” —Selby Wynn Schwartz
”Kaleidoscopic and beguiling. A singular and thrilling debut that shows what happens when objective truth and meaning are drowned in the shifting river of history and politics.” —Andrew McMillan
”Strange, intriguing, exhilarating.” —Camilla Grudova
”Intimate, intricate, and ultimately irresistible. Smith's unforgettable style builds a political-personal narrative that resounds to the drumbeat of resistance and rebellion.” —Ruby Cowling
”Like being in a hall of mirrors where you think you've caught Smith's eye but it's just a reflection. When something slips into view between the glass, you get that uncanny feeling you're staring back at yourself. A mysterious quest of excavation.” —Jen Calleja
Inspector Imanishi Investigates by Seichō Matsumoto (translated from Japanese by Beth Cary) $30
Tokyo, 1960. As the first rays of morning light hit the rails at Kamata Station, a man's body is found on the tracks: blood-stained, disfigured and unrecognisable. With only two leads — a distinctive accent and a single word, "kameda" — senior inspector Imanishi Eitaro is called in to solve the puzzle. Accompanied by junior detective Yoshimura, he crosses Japan in search of answers, determined to uncover the secrets of this gruesome crime. With no suspect, no evidence and no witnesses, the two quickly reach a dead end. But, before long, a series of strange coincidences reopen the unsolved case: a young woman scatters pieces of white paper out the window of a train; an actor, on the verge of revealing an important secret, drops dead of a heart attack; and Inspector Imanishi investigates... A fascinating glimpse into 1960s Japanese society. This is one of Seicho Matsumoto's best-loved of his many novels. A nice edition.
”This reminds me of John le Carre's writing. It's a moment of transition in Japan; new ideas are spreading, new contexts are forming. There's traditional beauty still, but modernity is yammering to be let in. Highly recommended.” —Nick Harkaway
Rēwena and Rabbit Stew: The rural kitchen in Aotearoa, 1800—1940 by Katie Cooper $50
The rhythms and routines of country life are at the heart of this compelling account of the rural kitchen in Aotearoa. Historian Katie Cooper explores how cooking and food practices shaped the daily lives, homes and communities of rural Pakeha and Maori throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Delving into cooking technologies, provisions, gender roles and hospitality, the story of the rural kitchen highlights more than just the practicalities of putting food on the table.
”This book is a fantastic addition to rural history, with a compelling perspective and a fresh set of concerns about place, dwelling, and movement in and around rural spaces. The book brings both an intimacy and a vulnerability to rural life plus a strong sense of rural robustness. Visually, this is an extraordinary collection. The images themselves tell a compelling story.” —Jane McCabe
A Man Holds a Fish by Glenn Busch $75
A retrospective survey of 79 extraordinary images, chosen by the photographer himself, and beautifully presented in a large-format book. Almost other-worldy, and striking in their humanity and emotional affect, the images in this resonant book bear returning to again and again. Busch left school at 14 and spent his early years working as a manual labourer in many different places around Australia and New Zealand. His passion for photography began with the viewing of the work of Hungarian photographer Brassai and his understanding of the medium was helped through a chance meeting with John B Turner. Throughout his career, Busch has focused on capturing the essence of daily life, often exploring themes of community, work and identity. His influential projects include Working Men, You Are My Darling Zita, The Man With No Arms and Other Stories, My Place and the ongoing Place In Time documentary project.
”In the early 1970s, the social documentary tradition was the reigning, respectable approach, and Busch's work remains foundational, even after half a century retaining a vividness and force in its resistance to any tendency to idealise in his portraiture, as this book so clearly attests.” —Peter Ireland
The World of James Joyce (and Other Irish Writers): A 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle by Michael Kirkham, with text by Joseph Brooker $45
Step into Dublin on 16 June 1904 with Stephen Dedalus, Leopold Bloom and a host of other characters. Spot Joyce himself along with fellow Irish writers as you explore the world of Ulysses.
"Challenging, but easier to finish than Ulysses." —VOLUME customer
The Girls in the Red House Are Singing by Tracey Slaughter $30
our task is to sing in this killer place — but how does the body go on singing, in pain, in isolation, in dead-end love? Tracey Slaughter’s new collection of poems begins with the sequence that won the £10,000 Manchester Poetry Prize in 2023, ‘opioid sonatas’, which travels the jagged aftermath of a high-speed crash, charting the fallout of grief and the body’s long-term struggles with dosage and damage. The sequence ‘psychopathology of the small hotel’ haunts the rooms of stale, no-exit adultery, watching the trade-offs the body makes to dull its pain. ‘the girls in the red house are singing’ tunnels back into childhood and teenage years, to face the echoes of violence left unvoiced — and confront the legacy of rape culture. ‘nudes, animals & ruins’ circles the emptied streets during lockdown, listening for the sounds the body makes when it must survive alone.
”Haunting and harrowing, yet executed with such forceful luminous brilliance. We kept reading the poems aloud, revelling in the breath-taking momentum, beautiful language, and galloping rhythmic quality. Outstanding.” —Malika Booker, Manchester Poetry Prize judge, 2023
Becoming Tangata Tiriti: Working with Māori, Honoring the Treaty by Avril Bell $30
Becoming Tangata Tiriti brings together twelve non-Māori voices — dedicated professionals, activists and everyday individuals — who have engaged with te ao Māori and have attempted to bring te Tiriti to life in their work. In stories of missteps, hard-earned victories and journeys through the complexities of cross-cultural relationships, Becoming Tangata Tiriti is a book of lessons learned. Sociologist Avril Bell analyses the complicated journey of today's partners of te Tiriti o Waitangi, and asks: Who are we as tangata tiriti? How do we identify in relation to Māori? What are our responsibilities to te Tiriti? What do we do when we inevitably stumble along the way? This concise paperback acts as a guide for those just beginning their journey towards a Tiriti-based society — and is a sound refresher for others well along the path.
”Based on interviews with twelve non-Maori New Zealanders, Bell expertly weaves their narratives with existing writing, exploring what it means to be a good ally to Māori in contemporary times. To call it a 'how-to manual' would be too reductive but it does offer a pragmatic set of tools for those willing to do the work. Through teasing out the ways in which non-Māori have engaged with te ao Māori, and the often layered and nuanced complexities these engagements create, the book offers an invitation to Pākeha and, in fact, all non-Māori to be part of the conversation around what makes us New Zealanders — and how we might move forward in ways that are just and that enhance the mana of Māori and non-Māori alike. An easy-to-read book that should be compulsory reading for anyone concerned about our country's future.” —Rebecca Kiddle
Lady Macbeth by Ava Reid $38
A reimagining of Lady Macbeth, Shakespeare's most famous villainess, giving her a voice, a past, and a power that transforms the story men have written for her. The Lady knows the stories: that her eyes induce madness in men. The Lady knows she will be wed to the Scottish brute, who does not leave his warrior ways behind when he comes to the marriage bed. The Lady knows his hostile, suspicious court will be a game of survival, requiring all of her wiles and hidden witchcraft to survive. But the Lady does not know her husband has occult secrets of his own. She does not know that prophecy girds him like armour. She does not know that her magic is greater, and more dangerous, and that it will threaten the order of the world. She does not know this yet. But she will.
”Reid takes one of Shakespeare's most interesting antiheroes and endows her with vulnerability, power and depth: a protagonist who's neither flower nor serpent, but something both more magical and more human. This is a darkly gorgeous feast of a book, rich with irony and invention. I was spellbound from the very first page.” —Freya Marske
“Lady Macbeth is a dark, elegant, heart-stirring novel, beautifully written, rich with the history of language and of medieval Scotland. This tale of a tortured, appealing, resourceful woman carves its own life from the Scottish play in a unique and powerful way. I loved every page.” —Louisa Morgan
The Museum of Failures by Thrity Unrimgar $37
Remy Wadia left India for the United States long ago, carrying his resentment of his mother with him. He has now returned to Bombay to adopt a baby from a young pregnant girl — and to see his elderly mother for the first time in several years. Discovering that his mother is in the hospital, has stopped talking, and seems to have given up on life, he is struck with guilt for not realizing just how sick she has become. His unexpected appearance and assiduous attention revives her and enables her to return to her home. But when Remy stumbles on an old photograph, shocking long-held family secrets surface. As the secrets unravel and Remy's mother begins communicating again, he finds himself re-evaluating his entire childhood, his relationship to his parents, and his harsh judgment of the decisions and events long hidden from him, just as he is on the cusp of becoming a parent himself. But most of all, he must learn to forgive others for their failures and human frailties.
”There's no powder keg like a family secret. And when it explodes, nothing in the past is ever as it was, and nothing in the future is ever the same. The Museum of Failures is a symphony of secrets and lies, love and hate, regret and forgiveness.” —Marlon James
The West: A new history of an old idea by Naoíse Mac Sweeney $30
We tend to imagine Western Civilisation as a golden thread stretching from classical antiquity to the countries of the modern Western world. But what if this is wrong? Told through the lives of fourteen fascinating historical figures — including a formidable Roman matriarch, an unconventional Islamic scholar, an enslaved African American poetess and a British prime minister with Homeric aspirations — archaeologist and historian Naoíse Mac Sweeney charts how the idea of The West was invented, how it has been used to justify imperialism and racism, and why it is no longer ideologically fit for purpose today. New paperback edition.
”One by one she takes on hoary old myths, explodes them with panache, and leaves us instead with a richer, fuller understanding of epochs, worldviews and fascinating individuals from the past.” —Guardian
A Language of Limbs by Dylin Hardcastle $38
The first love of a teenage girl is a powerful thing, particularly when the object of that desire is her best friend, also a girl. It's the kind of power that could implode a family, a friendship, a life. On a quiet summer night in Newcastle, 1972, a choice must be made: to act upon these desires, or suppress them? To live an openly queer life, or to try desperately not to? Over the following three decades, these two lives almost intersect in pivotal moments, the distance between them at times drawing so thin they nearly collide. Against the backdrop of an era including Australia's first Mardi Gras and the AIDS pandemic, we see these two lives ebb and flow, with joy and grief and loss and desire, until at last they come together in the most beautiful and surprising of fashions. A Language of Limbs is about love and how it's policed, friendship and how it transcends, and hilarity in the face of heartbreak - the jokes you tell as you're dying and the ways laughing at a funeral softens the edges of our grief.
”A life-affirming, deeply felt novel of the decisions we make and the lives that unspool from them. To read A Language of Limbs is to be reminded of the power of queer joy and community. I loved it.” —Hannah Kent
”Poetic, fresh and mesmerising, Hardcastle's work is like nothing I have ever read. A Language of Limbs is full of feeling; a love story about the family we make ourselves. Upon finishing this book I was overwhelmed by a sense of, more. I am desperate for more stories like this.” —Jessie Stephens
”Dylin Hardcastle's novel carried me away like a tidal current. Expansive across time, yet intimate in its focus, A Language of Limbs is that rare book that's equally poetic and propulsive — with twin protagonists who are impossible to shake. Nothing short of an instant queer classic.” —Benjamin Law
Into the Sideways World by Ross Welford $19
When twelve-year-olds Willa and Manny hear of a mysterious animal prowling their town, they are determined to prove it is real. Following the creature into a cave one full moon, they are swept into an alternate, ideal, world – one where pollution and conflict have been conquered decades ago and even their own families seem happier. But when they return, no one believes them. So, with a global war looming in their own world, their quest for proof of the Sideways World becomes ever-more urgent, in a nail-biting race against time. And Willa and Manny will have to make an impossible decision: because once you find a perfect world, can you ever leave it behind?