Shonagh Koea: 10 books

Blackly humorous yet poignant and multi-levelled, finely crafted and thoroughly entertaining, this short-story collection is from a unique writer with a rare and distinctive talent.*'Reading Shonagh Koea's stories . . . is like sampling a box of good, rich chocolates. Read (or eat) too many at once...

This novel is a compelling, black comedy of manners and relationships. When the parcel first reaches Rosalind's mail box she is unable to take it out or even to contemplate opening it. It throws her into a series of painful recollections and comic-tragic events, which gradually reveal the nature...

**A memoir - with recipes - from a well-loved writer with a unique and quirky take on life.**Looking back over her varied life in a range of roles, including daughter, wife, mother, journalist and novelist, Shonagh Koea has collected a store of vivid memories that often centre on food. In these moving...

**A novel about the transporting power of the imagination, about overcoming violence, and about the beauty and resilience of a solitary life.**Ellis has come to appreciate her solitary life, in her bungalow not far from the sea. As she looks from her window, she begins to find a way to confront and...

**Witty and poignant, wicked and touching, another entertaining novel from popular writer Shonagh Koea.**As Christmas approaches, Evelyn's 'friends' the Clarks become more and more anxious about where she is going to spend Christmas, or more precisely with whom. They push forward a worrying assortment...

**Witty and ironic, this novel follows an intriguing return to the family home on the lonely margins of the sea.**Stephanie was always the outsider - never allowed to play with the china dolls on the staircase landing, always on the edge of family events, shut out of the important secrets. Now, after...

**S****honagh Koea exhibits her wonderful ability to combine the wry with the poignant in this finely observed short story.**When asked which was her daughter, Alyssum's mother always used to say, 'The ugly one.' Alyssum has since made a life for herself, away from her old home. But her mother is...

A quirky, much-loved novel about a return home, a past love affair and an elephant."It is many years since I turned the pages of the little book I wrote for the holy man, and the ivory covers creak as I open on the story of how I went to India . . . As my voice ascends, thin as the song of a...

Wry and poignant, this quirky novel is about resilience and defiance in the face of loss.** "Dear Invisible Elaine, I know you are out there somewhere, but it would be really wonderful if I could find you." The Wedding at Bueno-Vista takes us into the world of Elaine Frobisher, a woman who...

**The celebrated author of gentle despair and stylish horror takes a picaresque and light-hearted tilt at prostitution, the Mafia, real estate and the supernatural in this entertaining urban fairytale.**Lydia, a gorgeous, blonde of uncertain age, has for several years been the chief entertainer at...