This fast-paced literary thriller follows the lives of three characters each trying to survive in the craziness of a city something like your own. Spit is 16 and streetwise, adept at sliding round the welfare system and making a dollar or two where he can. Lavendar, beautiful, groomed to perfection and not about to reveal her age to anyone, is at last making it in the cut-throat world of Image Management. Ratman, poor Ratman, is an idiot savan who can do anything with a co...

“Fox was not one of those people who prided themselves on rational control over their lives. He knew that logic proved only its own assumptions and that great idea were more likely to be founded in the crazy patterns of his dreams…”   Surreal – provocative – entertaining – disturbing: tens tories from highly original New Zealand writer.

A fascinating novel about small-town communities, which is also a love story and a whodunit. Ken McUrran runs a service station in a small town. He's an ordinary kiwi bloke who wants an ordinary kiwi life. Trouble is, a young Austrian hitch-hiker disappears. Ken's niece, Gith, has seen which car gave the young woman back-packer a ride. Trouble is, because of a serious car accident, Gith can't talk properly. Ken is the only person who can understand her, let alone believe ...

A compassionate novel exploring our deep need for human comfort and reassurance, even in the midst of seeming plenty. In the trendy satellite town of Durry, four couples live in the support and trust of their joint friendship. They've stuck by one another through young love and marriage break-up, hard times and rising affluence. Each knows the others inside out. But now the teenage daughter of one of them is killed in a hit and run. Cracks begin to appear in their relatio...

Part fairy tale and part philosophical exploration, this compelling fictional love story is witty and subtle, full of insight into the peculiar blend of reason and passion that makes up our humanity. When Jack Collingham becomes chauffeur to the Casturians, it seems the perfect arrangement. He is capable and obliging and willing to comply with the oddest requests. All he wants is to save some money and have some free time to work out what to do with his life. But when true...

From one of New Zealand's most thoughtful writers, not just a finely crafted novel but a whole country, complete with dark undertones. Kit Wallace has spent his whole life running away. Through luck and lack of purpose he has finally washed up in the Pacific nation of Ventiak. Here, on the top floor of the Royal Albert Hotel, he avoids his past by drinking whisky and writing poetry he fully intends no one should ever read. Yet, despite himself, he has been drawn into the ...

What is real and what is fantasy? Is happiness real, or simply a fragmented dream, half forgotten in the mire of consciousness? For some, happiness exists in the form of that one impossible person standing just beyond their grasp...

WITH AN AFTERWORD FROM THE AUTHOR'A major work of mounting tensions in which the human mind is the guinea-pig... Mr Fowles has taken a big swing at a difficult subject and his hits are on the bull's eye' Sunday TimesOn a remote Greek Island, Nicholas Urfe finds himself embroiled in the deceptions of a master trickster. As reality and illusion intertwine, Urfe is caught up in the darkest of psychological games. John Fowles expertly ...

A collection of interlinked tales of crime and retribution laced with dark humour, set around the festive season – from the No. 1 bestseller Stuart MacBrideOn the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…Twelve days, twelve stories.Meet Fat Billy Partridge, possibly the worst cat-burglar ever; newbie drug-dealer Brian, who probably shouldn’t be taking advantage of the job’s fringe benefits; Philippe, a chef with anger-management issues and lo...

Fourteen-year-old Prue and her sister Grace have been educated at home by their controlling, super-strict father all their lives. Forced to wear Mum's odd hand-made garments and forbidden from reading teenage magazines, they know they're very different to 'normal' girls - but when Dad has a stroke and ends up in hospital, unable to move or speak, Prue suddenly discovers what it's like to have a little freedom.Sent to a real school for the first time, Prue struggles to fit in. The o...

On some days, New York is one of the most beautiful places on Earth.This was one of the other days.Melody Malone, owner and sole employee of the Angel Detective Agency, has an unexpected caller. It's movie star Rock Railton, and he thinks someone is out to kill him. When he mentions the 'kiss of the Angel', she takes the case. Angels are Melody's business.At the press party for Railton's latest movie, studio owner Max Kliener invites Melody to the film set of their ...

WINNER OF THE NEWBERY MEDAL AND NATIONAL BOOK AWARDONE OF TIME MAGAZINE'S 100 BEST YA BOOKS OF ALL TIMEThe iconic, multi-million bestselling novel. An unmissable modern classic.'Joyous... Everyone should be reading it, including adults' Cressida Cowell, author of How to Train your DragonStanley Yelnats' family has a history of bad luck, so when a miscarriage of justice sends him to Camp Gree...