The Wedding at Bueno-Vista by Shonagh Koea

$12.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Fiction | Reading Level: very good

Discerning the Subject by Paul Smith; John Mowitt

$14.00 NZD

Category: Literature | Series: Theory and History of Literature Ser.

The World, the Text, and the Critic by Edward W. Said

$18.00 NZD

Category: Literature | Reading Level: very good

This extraordinarily wide-ranging work represents a new departure for contemporary literary theory. Author of Beginnings and the controversial Orientalism, Edward Said demonstrates that modern critical discourse has been impressively strengthened by the writings of Jacques Derrida and Michel Foucault, f or example, and by such influences as Marxism, structuralism, linguistics, and psychoanalysis. He argues, however, that the various methods and schools have had a crippling effect through their tendency to force works of literature to meet the requirements of a theory or system, ignoring the complex affiliations binding the texts to the world.The critic must maintain a distance both from critical systems and from the dogmas and orthodoxies of the dominant culture, Said contends. He advocates freedom of consciousness and responsiveness to history, to the exigencies of the text, to political, social, and human values, to the heterogeneity of human experience. These characteristics are brilliantly exemplified in his own analyses of individual authors and works.Combining the principles and practice of criticism, the book offers illuminating investigations of a number of writers--Swift, Conrad, Luk cs, Renan, and many others--and of concepts such as repetition, originality, worldliness, and the roles of audiences, authors, and speakers. It asks daring questions, investigates problems of urgent significance, and gives a subtle yet powerful new meaning to the enterprise of criticism in modern society. ...Show more

Penguin Special: The Life and Times of Allen Lane by Jeremy Lewis

$18.00 NZD

Category: Books About Books | Reading Level: good-very good

A stocky, dapper Bristolian who left school at the age of sixteen to work for his uncle at The Bodley Head and went on to found Penguin Books, Allen Lane was the greatest publisher of the twentieth century, and a major influence on the cultural and political life of post-war Britain. He did not invent t he paperback, but he revolutionised our reading habits by his insistence that the best writing in the world should be made available for the price of a packet of cigarettes. Though never a bookish man himself, Lane was adept at sensing the spirit of the age and always ready to follow his hunches: he commissioned Nikolaus Pevsner to write the Buildings of England, gave his backing to John Lehmann's Penguin New Writing, arguably the finest literary magazine of its times, risked prosecution by publishing James Joyce's Ullyses for the first time in this country, and a quarter of a century later appeared at the Old Bailey to defend Penguin's publication of Lady Chatterley's Lover, thereby anticipating the liberal reforms of the 1960s. ...Show more

A Man Without Breath by Philip Kerr

$15.00 NZD

Category: Hardback fiction | Series: A\Bernie Gunther Novel Ser. | Reading Level: very good

From the national bestselling author of Prague Fatale , a powerful new thriller that returns Bernie Gunther, our sardonic Berlin cop, to the Eastern Front. Berlin, March, 1943. A month has passed since the stunning defeat at Stalingrad. Though Hitler insists Germany is winning the war, commanders on the ground know better. Morale is low, discipline at risk. Now word has reached Berlin of a Red massacre of Polish officers in the Katyn Forest near Smolensk. If true, the message it would send to the troops is clear: Fight on or risk certain death. For once, both the Wehrmacht and Propaganda Minister Goebbels want the same thing: irrefutable evidence of this Russian atrocity. To the Wehrmacht, such proof will soften the reality of its own war crimes in the eyes of the victors. For Goebbels, such proof could turn the tide of war by destroying the Alliance, cutting Russia off from its western supply lines. Both parties agree that the ensuing investigation must be overseen by a professional trained in sifting evidence and interrogating witnesses. Anything that smells of incompetence or tampering will defeat their purposes. And so Bernie Gunther is dispatched to Smolensk, where truth is as much a victim of war as those poor dead Polish officers. Smolensk, March, 1943. Army Group Center is an enclave of Prussian aristocrats who have owned the Wehrmacht almost as long as they' ve owned their baronial estates, an officer class whose families have been intermarrying for generations. The wisecracking, rough-edged Gunther is not a good fit. He is, after all, a Berlin bull. But he has a far bigger concern than sharp elbows and supercilious stares, for somewhere in this mix is a cunning and savage killer who has left a trail of bloody victims. This is no psycho case. This is a man with motive enough to kill and skills enough to leave no trace of himself. Bad luck that in this war zone, such skills are two-a-penny. Somehow Bernie must put a face to this killer before he puts an end to Bernie. ...Show more

The Statement by Brian Moore

$15.00 NZD

Category: Hardback fiction | Reading Level: very good

For more than 30 years, Brian Moore has been writing works that are internationally admired by critics and fans. Author Graham Greene called Brian Moore his "favorite living novelist." Combining tightly constructed suspense and a superb eye for character, this novel emerges from the pages of recent hist ory, yet harbors a timeless conflict. Pierre Brossard is a war criminal. He is wanted for killing a group of Jews in southern France during World War II. With the aid of the Catholic Church and government contacts, he has managed to avoid capture for almost 50 years. But now his allies are growing old, and the political climate is changing. The wily Brossard is about to lose his protection; how much is he willing to risk to retain it? Moore infuses each of his books with a challenging perspective and a different moral dilemma. In The Statement, he traces the escalation of a deadly clash between personal responsibility and public guilt. It is no wonder than many of Brian Moore's novels have been nominated for Britain's prestigious Booker Prize. ...Show more

Lies of Silence by Brian Moore

$15.00 NZD

Category: Hardback fiction | Reading Level: very good

Brian Moore, born in Ireland and now living in the United States, has received many awards for his exceptional novels, including the Canadian Governor General's Award for Fiction and honors from the U.S. Institute of Arts and Letters. Short listed for the Booker Prize, Lies of Silence paints a riveting and intimate portrait of Ireland's bloody political struggles. Michael Dillon is climbing the ladder of success. He is manager of a luxury hotel in Belfast; his wife is gorgeous; his girlfriend adores him. The IRA has a deadly plan, however, which will put Michael in an impossible position-caught between bombs and conflicting loyalties. Lies of Silence provides an intense, intelligent commentary on the moral dilemmas caused by revolutionary politics. And the superb narration, by one of our most accomplished British readers, whisks the listener toward an unexpected and unforgettable conclusion. ...Show more

Dr. Johnson & Mr Savage by Richard Holmes

$16.00 NZD

Category: Literary biography | Reading Level: good-very good

In this outstanding, eminently readable work of literary scholarship, Holmes explores the enigmatic friendship between Samuel Johnson and the poet Richard Savage, whom Johnson memorialized in Lives of the Poets. Synthesizing a wide array of contradictory historical sources, from Johnson's Life of Savage to Boswell's Life of Johnson, the correspondence of Johnson's contemporaries and modern scholarship, Holmes shows that Savage was a notorious and alluring figure when Johnson first arrived in London in 1737. . . . "Holmes enlivens his study with keen insights into the art of biography and evocative glimpses into the professional literary industry of 18th-century London: its oppositional politics, literary journals and Grub Street coffee houses bustling with impoverished writers."--Publishers Weekly "In the course of explaining how and why Johnson told his story as he did, Holmes provides a fairly full biography of Savage, the first book-length study since Clarence Tracy's The Artificial Bastard (1953). Holmes' book . . . is at once learned and a pleasure to read."--Library Journal ...Show more

The Adaptable Man by Janet Frame

$10.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Fiction | Reading Level: good

Carpathians by Janet Frame

$12.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Fiction | Reading Level: very good

Stench by Mike Johnson

$10.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Fiction | Reading Level: good

"After they closed down the hospital, before selling it off to the bulldozers, a few of us broke in at night through a loose window at the back and ran around the corridors in the dim light playing ghosts and dead people. "That part was fun…" These are the opening lines of Mike Johnson’s sixth novel, Stench. The book begins simply and beguilingly in a small NZ town, but soon widens and deepens into a powerful tale of a whole town’s descent into fear and frenzy. A group of teenagers become party to a terrible secret: something lies beneath the floor of the old hospital, something that gives off a stench capable of changing people, warping their minds and their spirits, enslaving them. The action is seen through the eyes of one of these teenagers, the youngest and lowliest of them, a girl they all call Baby. The people of Hikitarua think Baby is a simpleton because she has a speech impediment and has difficulty communicating. But, at least in her own mind, she is the only one who can see clearly what is happening, and who desperately tries to prevent the unfolding tragedy. The only one who can save the town – or destroy it. With the action taking place over three or four drought-filled, hot, wind-driven days, this home-grown horror story snaps the reader up in a vice-like grip that doesn’t let go until the last line. Small-town New Zealand will never be the same again. Stench begins innocently enough, but grows into an intense and fantastic tale of terror that will seize your imagination and refuse to let it go. This is Mike Johnson at his gripping and Gothic best. What do people think of STENCHm "From book to book Mike Johnson keeps you guessing. What will he come up with nextn With Stench he continues his career as one of the most innovative, original and fearless writers I know." - Witi Ihimaera “Elegantly written, intensely readable and very, very creepy, Stench is certainly worth a look for devotees of horror fiction. But though it can creditably stand as a member of the genre (up there with some of the very finest of them) this stylish and intelligent novel offers much more. Readers who don’t have an appreciation for horror will also find much to admire in Stench – as long as they aren’t too squeamish.” Reviewed by Kate Loughmane Gulf News 6 May 2004 “… Mike Johnson writes coherent English and builds his story and his characters layer by layer. The ambiguity of the characters and the issues of truth bouncing off facts and confused perceptions makes Stench a book to mull over.” Reviewed by Robin List Wairarapa Times-Age 29 May 2004 “It’s a clammy nightmare of a book, twisting together its strands of familiarity and fantasy with a gruesome momentum.” Reviewed by Victor Billot Otago Daily Times 5 June 2004 “Johnson offers a homegrown version of [Stephen King and Philip K Dick’s take] on malevolence, anxiety and paranoia. It’s very stylishly and skilfully done, as he knocks out a lean narrative that is economical to the max…” Reviewed by David Eggleton Listener 5 June 2004 “…an effectively revolting yarn…” Reviewed by Nicholas Reid Dominion Post 5 June 2004 ...Show more

The Bone People by Keri Hulme

$10.00 NZD

Category: New Zealand Fiction | Reading Level: good

"The Bone People" is a love story. It begins when a mute six-year-old, full of blasting hurt and strange charm, wanders off the beach and into the home of a despairing artist. Kerwin has given up everything but drinking, thinking and fishing, but the arrival of the boy Simon, and later on, of his Maori foster-father Joe, drags them all into the gyre of possibilities. Cruel, funny, ardent and beautiful, "The Bone People" is a powerful and visionary New Zealand fable. ...Show more