Victoria University Press: 93 books

When Clifford Stilton dies, his son Gene crams his carefully kept diaries into a hall cupboard – but Clifford's words have too much life in them to be ignored, and start to permeate his family's world. Clifford taught Gene about how to find rocks and fossils, and about how to kill birds and fish....

A tale of murder mystery and Meccano Golden Deeds tells the story of the middle-aged Patrick Mercer, lying unconscious in a hospital bed: of the teenaged Laura Pearse's disappearance and the grieving of her bereft parents; and the story of Colette, a young woman seeking a new life in a strange city....

A researcher sits in the archive of the British Psychoanalytic Society in London, examining fragile pieces of paper, small notebooks, and diaries. A writer in Berlin finds himself haunted by the city’s socialist-era buildings, and by their designer. Each begins to sketch the historical figure at...

Raised by gorillas in the wild jungles of New Zealand, scarred in battles with vicious giant wetas, seduced by a beautiful young scientist, discovered by Memphis record producer Sam Phillips and adored by millions ? the dirt-to-dreams life story of Caliban is as legendary as his 30 number one hits....

Eileen Duggan was New Zealand's best known poet while she was writing and publishing. For many years her reputation outside New Zealand exceeded that of any other New Zealand poet. Her poetry shows an undeniable lyric gift and genuine skill in the evocation of atmosphere.

This superb collection of poems shows the benefit of ten years gestation. The major part of the book consists of poems coming from years spent living and studying overseas and then settling back in New Zealand and starting a family. With its broad scope and variety of lyric styles, Mapping the Distance is a landmark book.

The short stories in this collection follow characters that are plucked away from their normal lives to face wildly abnormal situations. An old coachman must face the death of his passenger; a missionary loses a colleague in the swollen waters of the Turakina River; a cranky ghost wreaks havoc on...

With an Edwardian twist on The Tempest, and surprising, earthy, and magical qualities, this irresistible novel is set on the remote, divided Scottish island of Kissack and Skilling, one half of which looks historically and geographically towards Catholic Ireland, the other toward the Protestant north...

A sequel to her award-winning bestseller The Vintner's Luck, The Angel's Cut is an evocative and wildly romantic new novel from Elizabeth Knox. Boomtown Los Angeles, 1929: Into a world of movies lots and speakeasies comes Xas, stunt flier and wingless angel, still nursing his broken heart, and determined...

It is 1987, forty-five years after Japan conquered New Zealand, and the brutal shackles of the occupation have loosened a little: English can be spoken by natives in the home, and twenty-year-old Business English teacher Chris Ipswitch has a job at the Wellington Language Academy. But even Chris and...

Robin Dromgoole, the only son of a widowed mother, learns to cook with Emmeline who lives next door. But Lisa on the other side, whom he minded when she was a baby, is the girl he marries. As ususal Anderson's writing is dazzling, she writes from the heart and shoots from the hip.

Fifteen writers with diverse personal and scholarly backgrounds come together in this collection to examine issues of identity, viewing it as both a departing point and end destination for the various peoples who have come to call New Zealand "home." The essays reflect the diversity of thinking...

In the not too distant future, the effects of climate change devastate the world and New Zealand becomes a haven for elites. When a young couple from the wrong side of the tracks gain entry into Wellington's most exclusive gated community, it appears their troubles are over. But they find themselves...

Whakamaa is a Maori word without an English counterpart. This book investigates this central Maori cultural concept in terms of both individual experience and cultural misunderstanding.