New Releases

Best of Both Worlds: The story of Elsdon Best and Tutakangahau
Jeffrey Paparoa Holman
Penguin NZ
 

In 1895 a meeting took place in the rugged Urewera ranges - Tuhoe country - that would have lasting effects on our views of traditional Maori society.

THE WAIT IS OVER!
New novel from Life of Pi author, Yann Martel

Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel (9781921656255, $39.00) is set to make a huge media splash when it is published on 14 April. This is Martel’s first novel since Life of Pi, which has sold 7.5 million copies worldwide.

Publicity highlights from Walker Books for February 2010:

SYDNEY BRIDGE UPSIDE DOWN by David Ballantyne (9781921520020, $32.00) is set to make a huge media splash in February. Discover the novel that changed Bernard Beckett’s life and influenced a whole generation of writers.

Media includes:

Nick Bollinger’s new book 100 Essential New Zealand Albums is, by anyone’s standards, an astonishing work. Not only did the much-followed music writer have to sort through his and others’ entire collections of New Zealand albums, dating from the 1930s to today, he then had to sit down and re-listen to hundreds and hundreds of albums to come up with his final selection.

Lush, by Vanessa Johnson

Farm Country
Panoramic Photography of Rural New Zealand
Andris Apse
RRP $39.99

The beauty of New Zealand's rural landscape is often overshadowed by its grander and more famous wilderness scenery. Yet, as rural people have always known, no one travelling through New Zealand can fail to notice how attractive and appealing so much of our farmed countryside is.

Farm Country is a tribute to our rural landscape from New Zealand's leading panoramic photographer, Andris Apse. It serves as a wonderful keepsake and record of this beauty.

Backroads: Charting a Poet’s Life by Sam Hunt
“The world of poems is very much a spoken one”

So says New Zealand’s best-known performance poet, Sam Hunt. Anyone who has heard the lanky wordsmith recite his poems – on stage, radio, television or at a school – can not forget that unmistakable voice and larger-than-life persona.

In this first-to-be published memoir, the former altar boy, sometime teacher and truck driver takes us down his backroads and introduces the reader to the many characters he has had the pleasure to have known and swapped words with.

Stories from our Night Sky
Written by Melanie Drewery and Illustrated by Jenny Cooper

Puffin PB | $25.00 | December 2009 | Ages 5+

A beautiful collection of stories and poems about our southern skies. From the legends of Matariki and Rona and the Moon through to how tuatara made the stars, Melanie Drewery weaves a special magic through all her stories that will ensure we never look up at the night sky in the same way again.